Money is pouring into women’s sports, with athletes in basketball, hockey, soccer, softball and volleyball reaping the rewards. But the top tier of the world’s highest-paid female athletes is dominated by tennis, as it has been for decades.
The 15 top-earning female athletes in 2025 include 10 tennis players, up from nine last year, plus a pair of golfers and one each from basketball (Caitlin Clark), gymnastics (Simone Biles) and skiing (Eileen Gu).
Tennis star Coco Gauff leads the way for the third straight year with $31 million, a tick ahead of her rival Aryna Sabalenka ($30 million). Sabalenka is the fourth woman in sports to earn more than $30 million in a given year, after Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and Gauff.
The top 15 earned an estimated $249 million this year from prize money, salaries, bonuses and endorsements, up 12%. All 15 earned at least $10 million, versus 11 last year and six in 2023. The $10.1 million cutoff to crack the list is up from $6.7 million in 2024.
Tennis remains the only major professional sport where women’s pay stacks up near par with men’s. WTA Tour prize money trails the ATP, but the money is the same at the Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events. On the sponsor front, six women earned at least $10 million off the court, versus four active men at $10 million-plus.
Gauff made an estimated $23 million off the court on top of her $8 million in prize money. In April, she launched Coco Gauff Enterprises in conjunction with talent firm WME to manage her career after seven years aligned with Roger Federer’s agency, Team8. WME does not have any ownership in the business.
Gauff’s most lucrative endorsement deal is with New Balance. The Boston-based brand first signed her when she was 14 and redid the contract in 2022 to make it one of the richest in the women’s game. The top-ranked American player has a deep endorsement roster of more than a dozen partners that also includes Baker Tilly, Bose, Head, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz and Chase Bank.
Sabalenka lost the Australian Open and French Open finals before emerging victorious at the U.S. Open, as well as two WTA 1000 tournaments. The U.S. Open win was worth $5 million, up from $3.6 million in 2024, and it helped push her total prize money for the year to $15 million. It smashed the previous record set in 2013 when Serena Williams won $12.4 million. At $45.2 million, Sabalenka is up to second all-time in WTA career prize money, but she has some work to catch up with Williams’ $94.8 million.
Gu is the highest-ranked non-tennis player at fourth with $23 million. The freestyle skier stepped away from her studies at Stanford to focus on adding more golds to her collection at the upcoming Winter Olympics. She won three medals, including two golds, at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. In 2019, the American-born Gu started competing for China, where her mother was born. She had more than 20 brand partners ahead of the Beijing Games. Gu has cut back on the number of sponsorship deals but is earning more than ever.
Clark missed 70% of the Indiana Fever’s games during the WNBA season as she struggled with injuries. But it was another record year off the court for the star guard, who ranked sixth at $16.1 million, up four spots from 2024. She earned $119,000 in W playing salary and bonuses.
Clark’s college career at Iowa ended with an NCAA title-game loss to South Carolina in April 2024. A week later, she was drafted first overall by the Fever. She continued to add endorsement partners during her first W season.
This has been the first full year of those contracts, which helped boost her off-court income from $11 million in 2024 to an estimated $16 million in 2025. She also signed new partnerships with Ascension St. Vincent and Stanley.
The 15 highest-paid women represent seven different countries and skew young, with seven of them under 25. Compare that to the highest-paid men, where soaring salaries in team sports push the age of the top earners up. Last year, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland was the only male athlete under 25 among the top 30 earners.
Clark is the lone team sport athlete to make the cut, with New York Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu falling just short. Other athletes right outside the top 15 include tennis’ Jasmine Paolini, track and field’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, skiers Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, and boxers Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor.
The earnings include prize money, salaries and bonuses during 2025 for active athletes. The endorsement earnings estimates were compiled through conversations with those familiar with marketing agreements and include royalties, memorabilia, appearance fees, media and businesses tied to their celebrity. The figures are all before taxes and any agent fees.
1. Coco Gauff: $31 million
Prize money: $8 million | Endorsements: $23 million | Age: 21
Gauff added a second Grand Slam to her résumé with a French Open title, on top of her 2023 U.S. Open win, although she failed to get past the quarterfinals in the other three major events. She partnered with New Balance and Miu Miu this year for a tennis-inspired apparel collection that hit stores in September. Early in the year, Gauff invested in startup women’s basketball league Unrivaled.
2. Aryna Sabalenka: $30 million
Prize money: $15 million | Endorsements: $15 million | Age: 27
Sabalenka finished the year No. 1 in the WTA Tour rankings for the second straight season after reaching nine tournament finals, with four wins. The wins and ranking triggered lucrative bonuses from her biggest sponsor, Nike. Her other sponsors include Wilson, Audemars Piguet, Whoop, Electrolit and IM8. She is set for a pair of exhibitions this month: the Garden Cup in New York City, as well as an updated “Battle of the Sexes” against Australian Nick Kyrgios.
3. Iga Świątek: $23.1 million
Prize money: $10.1 million | Endorsements: $13 million | Age: 24
The Polish-born ĹšwiÄ…tek finished second in the year-end WTA rankings behind Sablenka for the second straight season, and she also sits just behind her for career prize money. ĹšwiÄ…tek has been world No. 1 for a total of 125 weeks, which leads active players and is seventh all-time. Swiss brand On signed her in 2023 to help launch its tennis apparel line.
4. Eileen Gu: $23 million
Prize money: $20,000 | Endorsements: $23 million | Age: 22
There is not a lot of money to be made on the snow in freestyle skiing; njuries limited Gu to one event so far this year, where she earned in prize money, after winning $102,000 in 2024, but sponsorships send her near the top of the list. Her latest big-name partner is TCL, which joins Porsche, Red Bull, Bosideng, Anta, IWC and Mengniu in her portfolio. In June, she became a global ambassador for The Snow League, the recently launched professional league for snowboarding and freeskiing founded by Shaun White.
5. Zheng Qinwen: $20.6 million
Prize money: $1.6 million | Endorsements: $19 million | Age: 23
Injuries slowed Zheng this year after her breakout 2024 that included her first Slam final at the Australian Open and an Olympic gold medal—the first by an Asian tennis player, male or female, in singles. The Olympic gold triggered an avalanche of deals, and she counts more than a dozen endorsements, including Nike, Alipay, Audi, Dior, Gatorade and Rolex.
6. Caitlin Clark: $16.1 million
Salary/bonus: $119,000 | Endorsements: $16 million | Age: 23
In August, Nike announced Clark as its latest signature athlete, with a new signature logo, a collection of sportswear and apparel, and a signature sneaker to debut in 2026. She joined fellow Nike athletes A’ja Wilson and Ionescu as active WNBA players with signature sneakers. Clark’s other sponsors include Gatorade, State Farm, Wilson, Panini America, Hy-Vee, Xfinity, Gainbridge and Lilly.
7. Nelly Korda: $13.8 million
Prize money: $2.8 million | Endorsements: $11 million | Age: 27
Korda reeled off a record-tying five straight wins in 2024 and seven titles overall in 16 events. She was shut out from the winner’s circle this year, even though her scoring average ticked down to 69.44. Korda is by far the biggest star on the LPGA and has 14 marketing partners led by Nike, TaylorMade, Goldman Sachs and T-Mobile. The latest addition is professional services firm EY.
8. Madison Keys: $13.4 million
Prize money: $4.4 million | Endorsements: $9 million | Age: 30
Keys reached a career-high No. 5 WTA ranking in February after she won her first Grand Slam title, the 2025 Australian Open. At 29, she was the second-oldest women’s winner of the event after Li Na in 2014 at 31. She now has more than 10 brand partners, including Nike, Yonex, MassMutual, IBM, Breathe Right and La Roche-Posay.
9. Elena Rybakina: $12.6 million
Prize money: $8.6 million | Endorsements: $4 million | Age: 26
The 2022 Wimbledon champion failed to make it past the fourth round in any of the Grand Slams this year, but the Kazakhstan-born Rybakina salvaged her season with a win at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She earned $5.23 million after going 5-0 at the event, which featured the top eight women. It was the largest payout in the history of women’s sports, according to the WTA.
10. Naomi Osaka: $12.5 million
Prize money: $2.5 million | Endorsements: $10 million | Age: 28
Osaka returned to the court in 2024 after she took a year off from tennis with the birth of her daughter Shai, but it was not until 2025 when her game came back. Her WTA ranking moved up from No. 59 to No. 16, highlighted by a run to the U.S. Open semifinals.
11. Simone Biles: $11 million
Prize money: $0 | Endorsements: $11 million | Age: 28
Biles has not ruled out competing again, and sponsors continue to tap the decorated gymnast. She launched her fifth collection with Athleta and also endorses Audemars Piguet, Lilly, Nulo Pet Food, K18 haircare and gymnastics brands GK Elite and Spieth America. The Netflix documentary Simone Biles Rising was nominated for an Emmy award, and she is collaborating with the Playmakers Group to develop a new restaurant, Taste of Gold, at her hometown airport in Houston.
12. Amanda Anisimova: $10.8 million
Prize money: $7.3 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million | Age: 24
Anisimova’s breakout 2025 included runner-up finishes at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She had made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam only twice before since turning pro in 2016. Nike is her biggest sponsor, and she also works with LALO Tequila, Wilson, Tiffany & Co. and Vita Coco.
13. Jessica Pegula: $10.5 million
Prize money: $5.5 million | Endorsements: $5 million | Age: 31
Pegula has finished in the WTA’s year-end top eight each of the past four years, and her prize money in 2025 ranked sixth on the tour. Her 53 match wins in 2025 were the most for an American over 30 since Serena Williams in 2015. Pegula is the founder of skin care line Ready 24.
14. Venus Williams: $10.2 million
Prize money: $219,000 | Endorsements: $10 million | Age: 45
Williams played three events in 2025, winning her first singles match since 2023, and made a U.S. Open doubles quarterfinals run with partner Leylah Fernandez. The wins in Queens pushed her prize money to its highest since 2021. Williams is in demand in the corporate speaking circuit for her three decades in tennis that include a fight for pay equity. Mattel has released Venus Williams Barbie dolls each of the last two years, inspired in part by her activism.
15. Jeeno Thitikul: $10.1 million
Prize money: $7.6 million | Endorsements: $2.5 million | Age: 22
Thitikul had $3.7 million in career prize money at the start of the 2024 season but won the LPGA’s richest event—the year-end CME Group Tour Championship—and its $4 milion payout in back-to-back years. It sent the Thai golfer soaring up the LPGA career prize money list to No. 7 at $17.4 million, despite only turning pro in 2022.
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