Serena Williams at top of female prize money list
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Serena Williams should change her name to $erena Williams.
Williams’ success at the Australian Open -- where she advanced to the finals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russia’s Elena Dementieva, along with qualifying (with sister Venus) for the doubles finals -- made her the all-time prize money leader in women’s sports.
With the prize money already guaranteed by reaching both finals, Williams sees her career total move to $22,753,575. That pushed her past fellow tennis player Lindsay Davenport, with $22,144,735 in career earnings. Williams also surpassed the LPGA’s Annika Sorenstam, who has $22,573,192 in career prize money.
For those keeping score, Davenport passed Steffi Graf in career prize money earnings in 2008; Graf had passed Martina Navratilova in earnings in 1998.
Here’s what Williams told the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour:
I’m thrilled with the news! I remember earning my first cheque of $240 at Quebec City in 1995 and while I knew that I could have a great career in tennis, I could not have imagined or dreamed of all of this. It’s amazing how much women’s tennis has grown since I joined the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour fourteen years ago. I am very proud to have reached this milestone for me, my family and all women athletes out there. This achievement really shows that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything.
So where does that put Williams on the list of top male and female prize winners? Sports Illustrated’s annual Fortunate 50 list put Tiger Woods at the top of its 2008 richest athletes list with $22.9 million in prize money for that year -- as well as annual endorsement income of $105 million.
-- Greg Johnson