--- title: Serena Williams Highest Paid Female Athlete description: Serena Williams has surpassed Maria Sharapova to become the world’s highest-paid female athlete, Forbes announced Monday. canonical: https://time.com/4359653/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete/ author: Sports Illustrated article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-07T14:01:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:40.537Z og:title: Serena Williams Is Now the World's Highest-Paid Female Athlete og:description: She earned $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements this year og:url: https://time.com/4359653/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6f6322c9ae669c/698896bc428a9e3a66cd2f0b/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: TENNIS-FRA-ROLAND-GARROS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Serena Williams Is Now the World's Highest-Paid Female Athlete twitter:description: She earned $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements this year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6f6322c9ae669c/698896bc428a9e3a66cd2f0b/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Serena Williams Is Now the World's Highest-Paid Female Athlete > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Sports Illustrated Jun 7, 2016 2:01 PM UTC  US player Serena Williams celebrates after winning her women's semi-final match against Netherlands' Kiki Bertens at the Roland Garros 2016 French Tennis Open in Paris on June 3, 2016\. / AFP / PHILIPPE LOPEZ (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images) US player Serena Williams celebrates after winning her women's semi-final match against Netherlands' Kiki Bertens at the Roland Garros 2016 French Tennis Open in Paris on June 3, 2016\. / AFP / PHILIPPE LOPEZ (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images) PHILIPPE LOPEZ—AFP/Getty Images by [Sports Illustrated](https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/) ## Sports Illustrated Jun 7, 2016 2:01 PM UTC Serena Williams has surpassed Maria Sharapova to become the world’s highest-paid female athlete, Forbes [announced](http://sports.yahoo.com/news/serena-williams-overtakes-maria-sharapova-as-highest-paid-female-athlete-011148793.html) Monday. Williams, 34, has earned $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements over the past year. Sharapova had held the top spot for 11 years, but has seen her earnings fall to $21.9 million–down almost $8 million from last year–due to a doping scandal that was unveiled in March. The UFC’s Ronda Rousey came in third on the list, while NASCAR driver Danica Patrick sits in fourth. Williams, who recently added a major deal with Chase to her list of endorsements, has lost the first two Grand Slam singles finals of the 2016 season. She most recently fell to Garbine Muguruza on Saturday in straight sets at the French Open. Williams hasn’t won a Grand Slam event since Wimbledon last year. _This_ [_article_](http://www.si.com/tennis/2016/06/06/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete-maria-sharapova) _originally appeared on_ [_SI.com_](http://www.si.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4359653/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4359653/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete/"},"headline":"Serena Williams Is Now the World's Highest-Paid Female Athlete","datePublished":"2016-06-07T14:01:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:40.537Z","description":"She earned $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements this year","url":"https://time.com/4359653/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete/","keywords":["motto","News","tennis"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6f6322c9ae669c/698896bc428a9e3a66cd2f0b/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sports Illustrated","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sports-illustrated/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a6f6322c9ae669c/698896bc428a9e3a66cd2f0b/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TENNIS-FRA-ROLAND-GARROS","caption":"TENNIS-FRA-ROLAND-GARROS","creditText":"PHILIPPE LOPEZ—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4359653/serena-williams-highest-paid-female-athlete/","name":"Serena Williams Is Now the World's Highest-Paid Female Athlete"}}]}] ```