Serena Williams Career Earnings: How Much Has Tennis Star Made?

Serena Williams takes on No. 7 seed Simona Halep for the Wimbledon title Saturday (9 a.m. Eastern time, ESPN). The 27-year-old Romanian won the 2018 French Open, and she is all that stands in the way of the American tennis ace’s eighth championship at the All England Club.

There’s substantial money on the line, though both will come out with hefty paychecks. According to Sporting News, both are guaranteed to make $1.49 million in prize money, and the winner will leave with $2.98 million. The overall purse is $49.4 million for all involved.

Both payouts will see Williams cross the $90 million threshold for her career. According to her WTA Tennis profile, she has raked in $88,856,834 since turning pro in 1995. This leads the career money list for female players, more than doubling her sister Venus’ $41,444,596.

This has not been a vintage year for Williams, though. Entering Wimbledon, she sat at No. 32 on earnings for this season at $623,533. This trails No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, the French Open champion just weeks ago, and No. 2 Naomi Osaka, winner at the Australian Open.

The top-10 list of most single-season prize money in women’s tennis heavily features Williams. She owns six places on the chart, topped by her 2013 earnings of $12.4 million. The other seasons featured are 2009, 2012 and 2014-16.

According to Business Insider, she is the No. 4 highest-paid tennis player regardless of gender, sitting behind No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 2 Roger Federer and No. 3 Rafael Nadal.

These earnings make up a considerable net worth of $180 million. Let’s take a look at the other factors.

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Serena Williams Net Worth

Much of her money comes from endorsements off the court. According to Bleacher Report, her biggest one is Nike, who signed her to a 5-year contract worth $40 million back in 2003. She has stuck with the sports brand ever since.

She has also appeared in ads for Gatorade, Pepsi, Intel, Delta, Beats by Dre, Chase Bank, Lincoln, Wilson, IBM, Mission Athletecare, Berlei and OnePiece. Forbes estimates that she earns $18 million a year from her endorsements.

She also combines her finances with tech guru husband Alex Ohanian, who founded and sold Reddit. He adds $9 million to the picture, which leads to a total net worth of $189 million for the couple.

According to Business Insider, this allows them to “live opulent lives.” Some of their initial dates include a 6-hour walk through Paris and a meal at Rome’s only 3-star Michelin restaurant. In addition, her ring’s estimated value is $2 million.

Along with their daughter Alexis Olympia, the family lives in a $6.7 million home in Beverly Hills. This massive amount of wealth has also led to philanthropic efforts, per Business Insider.

For all of their opulence, the duo is very philanthropic. Williams started the Serena Williams Fund to promote equity for all people. She’s also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and has supported Colin Kaepernick’s activism. Ohanian is outspoken about digital rights and was part of a group that donated $1.75 million to a nonprofit that teaches tech skills.

Serena Williams, starting on the court but extending well past it, has built a mini-financial empire for herself…one that is unprecedented in the world of women’s sports.

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