In a testament both to her earning power and to Maria Sharapova's sponsorship shortcomings over the past 18 months, Serena Williams lands on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid athletes as the top-earning female athlete.
Problem is, she's also the sole woman on the roster.
Appearing at No. 51, Williams earned $27 million in the past year, including endorsements with the likes of Nike, Beats by Dre, Gatorade, JP Morgan Chase, Wilson Tennis and more. Of her takes, $8 million came from on-court earnings and $19 million from sponsors.
In a so-called normal year, Sharapova certainly would have made the list as well, and quite possibly in the neighborhood of Williams' mid-list spot. But as has been well documented, the past year-plus has hardly been normal for Sharapova.
Among tennis stars who made the cut, Roger Federer comes in at No. 4 ($64 million), Novak Djokovic takes the No. 16 notch ($37.6 million), Kei Nishikori surprises some at No. 26 ($33.9 million), Rafael Nadal finds a nook at No. 33 ($31.5 million) and Andy Murray ($28.8 million) is No. 40. Soccer stud Christiano Ronaldo leads the list with a commanding $93 million, roughly $7 million in earnings ahead of NBA titan LeBron James.
To Williams' credit, though she may be away from sanctioned tennis play these days, she's hardly outside the headlines. Consider a glorious profile of her that recently appeared at espnW, as well as the facts that writers from The Onion to famous friends' kids in grade school can't stop penning pieces about her.
Those particular projects don't earn Williams anything in the monetary sense, but keeping one's name in the papes, so to speak, makes her one who matters in the court of public fanfare and leads to long-term largesse.
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