Dominance of Tennis Players Among Top 15 Highest-Paid Female Athletes in 2024

Globally, the difference between male and female athletes’ salaries is getting smaller every year. The list of the 15 highest-paid female athletes in 2024 shows that while sportsmen do make more money, at least some sportswomen have “bitten” a big chunk of the money cake.

Photo: Coco Gauff (screenshot youtube.com/@WTA)

With record TV ratings, attendance, income, sponsorships, and franchise prices across numerous sports organizations, interest in women’s sports has skyrocketed recently. This also has an impact on women’s sports betting, leading to the expansion of betting markets and opportunities in disciplines where female athletes are involved. The newest online bookmakers are expanding their selection to include a wider range of betting possibilities for women’s sporting events due to the obvious stronger influx of money to women’s sports, which is becoming more well-known and is followed more.

So, the money is beginning to pour into the sportswomens’ pockets. An estimated $221 million will be earned by the top 15 female athletes in the world by the end of 2024, a 27% increase over the previous year. In 2023, only six athletes earned at least $10 million; eleven did so this year.

Athletes from 5 Different Sports Make Cut, Led by Tennis with 9 Entries

As per Sportico, ith $30.4 million from prize money and endorsements combined, tennis player Coco Gauff is ranked #1 for the second consecutive year. After Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, she’s only the third female athlete belonging to this sport to make over $30 million in a single year.
Tennis had the most entries with nine, which makes 60% of all entries, but competitors from five other sports made the cut. Basketball, gymnastics, and skiing all have one competitor in the top 15, while golf has three.

Interestingly, this isn’t the highest number of tennis players on the list of highest-paid female athletes. The record was 10 on the top-10 list in 2019. Next year there were nine tennis players out of 10, while in 2022 and 2023, seven names from tennis were on the top-10 list.

Despite Disappointing Performace at Grand Slams in 2024, Gauff Claims List’s No. 1

Although she did win the doubles title at the French Open, Gauff failed to win any of the Grand Slams in singles this year. Her greatest showings at the Grand Slams in 2024 were semifinal performances at the Australian Open and French Open. In 2024, the 20-year-old American did win three championships, including the sport’s most lucrative tournament: Gauff won $4.805 million for defeating Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in the WTA Finals held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For a women’s tennis event, it was the largest prize ever.

Photo: The list of the top 15 highest-paid female athletes in 2024 (screenshot www.sportico.com)

Even though she earned $9.4 million in prize money, Gauff’s income off the court was more than double that amount. She signed a multi-year contract with L’Oréal to promote its natural hair care brand Carol’s Daughter, and she added the juice brand Naked, where she was appointed chief smoothie officer (CSO), to her extensive portfolio of endorsement arrangements. There’s an equity position in the Naked deal for her as well.

Zheng Qinwen, a rising tennis star who earned an estimated $20.6 million, including $15 million off the court, will threaten Gauff’s dominance in 2025. Her major breakthrough came at the Olympics in Paris, although she won two WTA events and advanced to the finals of three others, including the Australian Open. In 2025, the Chinese will make much more money off the court thanks to new deals and huge bonuses from sponsors after being the first Asian tennis player, male or female, to win Olympic gold in singles. Nike is one of her dozen endorsement partners. After Li Na, Zheng is the only other Chinese tennis player to place in the top 10.

Why did we say that Zheng will challenge Gauff’s earnings next year, and she’s not even the best-ranked female tennis player on the list after an American (Iga Świątek is better ranked, third overall, while Zheng is fourth)? It’s because China is a lucrative endorsement market—a gold mine for up-and-coming athletes. For instance, Eileen Gu (freestyle skier; second on the list) and Emma Raducanu (tennis player; seventh on the list), both of whom have Chinese ancestry, have received large sums of money from sponsors thanks in part to China’s rich commercial landscape. IMG, which has strong ties in China from its previous work there, represents Zheng, just like it represented Li when her endorsement earnings approached $20 million, only a year after she won the French Open in 2011 and Wimbledon in 2014.

Complete List of 15 Highest-Paid Female Athletes

# 1 Coco Gauff (tennis, USA) $30.4 million
# 2 Eileen Gu (skiing, China) $22.1 million
# 3 Iga Świątek (tennis, Poland) $21.4 million
# 4 Zheng Qinwen (tennis, China) $20.6 million
# 5 Aryna Sabalenka (tennis, Belarus) $17.7 million
# 6 Naomi Osaka (tennis, Japan) $15.9 million
# 7 Emma Raducanu (tennis, Great Britain) $14.7 million
# 8 Nelly Korda (golf, USA) $14.4 million
# 9 Simone Biles (gymnastics, USA) $11.1 million
# 10 Caitlin Clark (basketball, USA) $11.1 million
# 11 Jasmine Paolini (tennis, Italy) $10 million
# 12 Jeeno Thitikul (golf, Thailand) $9.1 million
# 13 Jessica Pegula (tennis, USA) $8.2 million
# 14 Elena Rybakina (tennis, Kazakhstan) $7.9 million
# 15 Lydia Ko (golf, New Zealand) $6.7 million