Former world number one, Serena Williams tops the Forbes’ annual list of highest-paid female athletes released on Tuesday.
The mother of one earned a whopping $18.1 million between June 2017 and June 2018, the Forbes Magazine estimates.
Forbes reported that the tennis star only earned $62,000 in winnings during the 12-month period because she took time off to give birth to her daughter, Olympia. The tennis champ took a 14-month break to have her daughter starting in January 2017, which means she only worked for four months of the 12-month period Forbes analysed.
Serena, 36, earned the rest of her million-dollar pay day through endorsement deals with Nike, Intel, Gatorade and Beats, along with her new fashion collection Serena. This is the third straight year Williams has topped Forbes’ list of highest-paid female athletes.
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Tennis player Caroline Wozniacki came second on the list with total earnings of $13 million, $7 million of which came from prize money and $6 million from endorsements.
The rest of the top five highest-paid athletes are all tennis players, including Sloane Stephens ($11.2 million), Garbine Muguruza ($11 million) and Maria Sharapova ($10.5 million). Serena Williams’ sister Venus came in sixth on the list, earning $10.2 million.
In June, Forbes published its list of 100 highest-paid male and female athletes. Unfortunately, not a single woman made the list. It was the first time since 2010 that a woman did not make the cut. Williams was the only woman to make the list the year prior.