Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have both made a fortune off their phenomenal tennis careers, but a new list has put their achievements in the spotlight.
Serena Williams, still active on the tour, and Maria Sharapova, retired, both made hundreds of millions throughout their career on prize money and endorsements.
But a new Fortune list has put their sporting achievements into perspective. Sharapova, who retired earlier this year after years of injury, entered the Fortune List at No.87 for the highest made fortune for self-made women.
Siberia-born Sharapova, whose Wimbledon victory over Williams in 2004, aged 17, propelled her to superstardom and riches has an estimated wealth of $200 million.
SERENA Williams’ incredible career earnings
Serena Williams wore a figure-hugging thong bikini
Williams, who is still active and recently played in the French Open seeking her record-equalling Grand Slam title, featured a few places higher in the list.
The 23-time Grand Slam champ finished 83rd on the list with an estimated net wealth of $225 million.
Both Williams and Sharapova are the only athletes to appear on the list. The pair have made a huge amount of money from endorsements and their own business ventures.
Despite her insane career earnings, Williams recently claimed she had been ‘underpaid’ throughout her career.
Williams said she has been ‘underpaid and undervalued’ for her entire career in a revealing interview following her shock withdrawal from the French Open.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner spoke about the obstacles she had faced in her rise to the top of the tennis world, reflecting in particular on the challenges faced by people of colour.
With the sporting world dealing with the twin challenges of the coronavirus and the ongoing protests against police brutality and racial discrimination in the United States, Williams said it had been frustrating to see people coming around to her point of view about the discrimination faced by the black community despite trying to draw attention to it for years.
“Now, we as Black people have a voice,” Williams told British Vogue.
“At the end of May, I had so many people who were white writing to me saying, ‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve had to go through’.
“I think for a minute they started — not to understand, because I don’t think you can understand — but they started to see.
“I was like, ‘Well, you didn’t see any of this before? I’ve been talking about this my whole career. It’s been one thing after another’.”
In the Vogue interview, Williams also reflected on her own image and the way she believed she had been perceived and treated in the years since her professional tennis debut in the mid-1990s as a teenager.
Asked about how she felt she had been treated, the 39-year-old was blunt.
“Underpaid, undervalued,” she said.
