Maria Sharapova Tops Forbes Highest Paid Female Athletes For 10th Straight Year

Maria Sharapova (click to enlarge)

When the Forbes list of top 100 paid athletes came out a month or so ago, it was obvious Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Serena Williams would be 1, 2 and 3 when the top 10 female athlete list was published. Now it has been, and so officially we can say Masha has topped the women for the 10th straight year, even though her earnings were down nearly $5 million from the previous year. Partially, that’s due to Nike selling Cole Haan and also because Masha missed almost all of the second half of 2013 due to injury. Forbes measured from June 2013 to June 2014 for this 2014 list. Here are the top 10 women.

1 MARIA SHARAPOVA

Sport: Tennis

$24.4 Million (22 endorsements/2.4 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: Nike, Avon, Samsung, Tag Heuer, Evian, Head, Sugarpova, Porsche

 

Li Na (click to enlarge)

2 LI NA

$23.6 Million (18 endorsements/5.6 prizemoney)

Sport: Tennis

Key sponsors: Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Haagen-Dazs

 

Serena Williams (click to enlarge)

3 SERENA WILLIAMS

Sport: Tennis

$22 million (11 endorsements/11 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: Nike, Wilson, Gatorade, Apple

 

Kim Yeon-A (click to enlarge)

4 KIM YEON-A

Sport: Figure Skating

$16.3 Million (16 endorsements/0.3 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: SK Telecom, Nike, Samsung, Hyundai, Kookmin Bank, Korean Air

Danica Patrick (click to enlarge)

5 DANICA PATRICK

Sport: Auto Racing

$15 Million (8 endorsements/7 prizemoney & salary)

Key sponsors: GoDaddy, Coca-Cola, Goodyear, Chevrolet

 

Victoria Azarenka (click to enlarge)

6 VICTORIA AZARENKA

Sport: Tennis

$11.1 Million (7.5 endorsements/3.6 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: Nike, Red Bull, Citizen

 

Caroline Wozniacki (click to enlarge)

7 CAROLINE WOZNIACKI

Sport: Tennis

$10.8 Million (9.5 endorsements/1.3 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: Adidas, Rolex, Babolat, Turkish Airlines, Oriflame

 

Agnieszka Radwanska (click to enlarge)

8 AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA

Sport: Tennis

$6.8 Million (3 endorsements/3.8 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: Lexus, Play, Lotto Sport Italia, Cheesecake Factory

 

Ana Ivanovic (click to enlarge)

9 ANA IVANOVIC

Sport: Tennis

$6.4 Million (5 endorsements/1.4 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: Adidas, Yonex, Samsung

 

Paula Creamer (click to enlarge)

10 PAULA CREAMER

Sport: Golf

$5.5 Million (4.5 endorsements/1 prizemoney)

Key sponsors: TaylorMade, CDW, Adidas, Ricoh, SAP