Jasmine Paolini, the first Italian player in the Open Era to reach the Round of 16 in each of the first three Women’s Singles Grand Slam events of a season, is of Ghanaian heritage.



This year, the 28-year-old tennis star made history by advancing to the fourth round at Wimbledon, a tournament with a 147-year legacy.



Her journey at the tournament ended with a loss to Barbora Krejcikova. However, Paolini has joined the ranks of Steffi Graf, Justine Henin, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams as one of the few women this century to reach the singles finals at both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon in the same year.



Paolini&#8217;s multicultural background adds to her unique charm. In a press conference following her loss to Iga Swiatek in the French Open final last month, she said, &#8220;I’m proud to have different bloods in my body. I’m Italian, born in Italy, but my mom is Polish, and my grandfather is from Ghana. I think I’m fast because of Ghana&#8230; I can speak Polish, and I think it&#8217;s something more to have in your person, it&#8217;s a plus.&#8221;


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2161888641.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-62431" style="width:736px;height:auto" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2161888641.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2161888641-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2161888641-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>


Earlier this year, Paolini had also shared her thoughts on her heritage with BNPParibasOpen.com, noting, &#8220;Maybe I feel like I’m fast on court because of my Ghanaian heritage. From Poland, I have determination, and of course, I also have the Italian energy. It’s a mix, and I’m really proud of it.&#8221;



She reached the fourth round at the Australian Open, won her biggest title in Dubai, and finished as runner-up at Roland-Garros. These successes have propelled her from outside the world&#8217;s top 30 to her current career-high ranking of world No. 7. She is the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach two consecutive Grand Slam finals.



Paolini had never won a tour-level match on grass before this year. Her breakthrough came with a run to her first Wimbledon final, including a victory over Croatian Donna Vekic in the longest women&#8217;s semi-final in Wimbledon history on July 11.



After her final match, Paolini expressed her gratitude on social media, stating, &#8220;When I was little, I watched this fantastic tournament on TV. Playing in the final here is a lifetime memory. I didn’t win, but it’s still a good day. Thanks to everyone cheering for me — family, team, and sponsors.&#8221;

Day Eleven: The Championships – Wimbledon 2024

Of Ghanaian Heritage, Jasmine Paolini Reaches Back-To-Back Grand Slam Finals, First Since Serena Williams

tennis

Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2021: Federer, Serena And Nadal Win Even When They Can’t Take The Court

TOPLINE Champion tennis player Naomi Osaka announced Monday afternoon on Twitter that she will withdraw from the French Open after organizers fined her $15,000 over her decision to boycott press conferences during the event for mental health reasons.



KEY FACTS The decision came one day after Roland Garros, the organizer of the French Open, announced that Osaka would be fined for not attending a mandatory press conference Sunday morning in Paris.



Osaka, currently ranked No. 2 in the world, beat out Romanian player Patricia Maria Țig in straight sets Sunday morning, but skipped out on the traditional post-match presser after saying last week that facing media questions can be harmful for athletes’ mental health.



&#8220;I never wanted to be a distraction,&#8221; the 23-year-old said on Twitter Monday, adding that she&#8217;s &#8220;suffered long bouts of depression since the U.S. Open in 2018&#8221; and gets &#8220;huge waves of anxiety before&#8221; speaking in press conferences.



CRUCIAL QUOTE &#8220;This isn&#8217;t a situation I ever imagined or intended when I posted a few days ago,&#8221; Osaka said Monday. &#8220;I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris.&#8221;



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://t.co/LN2ANnoAYD">pic.twitter.com/LN2ANnoAYD</a>&mdash; NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) <a href="https://twitter.com/naomiosaka/status/1399422304854188037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Osaka&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/naomiosaka/status/1397665030015959040?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;on Twitter last week that she would not do any press conferences during the open because she felt they perpetuated a disregard for athletes&#8217; mental health, citing examples of athletes breaking down in a press room after a tough loss. “I believe that the whole situation is&nbsp;kicking a person while they’re down,&nbsp;and I don’t understand the reasoning behind it,” she said. After Osaka didn’t show to the Sunday press conference, organizers of the four Grand Slams—the world’s most prestigious tennis tournaments, including the French and U.S. Opens—said in a statement that “a core element of the Grand Slam regulations is the responsibility of the players to engage with the media, whatever the result of their match.” They also warned that&nbsp;if Osaka further violated any media obligations, she could receive additional fines, as well as face suspension from the Paris tournament and even future&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/article/statement-from-grand-slam-tournaments-regarding-naomi-osaka" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Grand Slam tournament suspensions</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h4>



Osaka received an outpouring of support on social media following her tournament withdrawal, with many people—including celebrities, politicians and fellow athletes—wishing her well and applauding her decision to speak up about mental health. “As athletes we are taught to take care of our body, and perhaps the mental &amp; emotional aspect gets short shrift,” Martina Navratilova, often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Martina/status/1399443582671540231" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;shortly after Osaka’s announcement. “This is about more than doing or not doing a press conference.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



$37 million. That’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/05/22/naomi-osaka-is-the-highest-paid-female-athlete-ever-topping-serena-williams/?sh=64b43cdf1fd3">how much money</a>&nbsp;Osaka made from May 2019 to May 2020, according to&nbsp;Forbes, making her the highest-paid female athlete of all time.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/05/30/naomi-osaka-fined-15000-and-faces-suspension-over-boycotting-press-conferences/">Naomi Osaka Fined $15,000 And Faces Suspension Over Boycotting Press Conferences</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2021/05/30/naomi-osaka-fined-15000-for-french-open-media-boycott-repeat-violations-could-mean-default-from-the-tournament/">Naomi Osaka Fined $15,000 For French Open Media Boycott, Repeat Violations Could Mean ‘Default From The Tournament’</a> (Forbes)



By Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff

gettyimages-1198783851-594×594

Naomi Osaka Withdraws From French Open After Media Boycott Fine

Multi-Ethnic women business team having discussion new projects

The Greatest Stories of Female Entrepreneurs of The 21st Century

Miami Open 2019 – Day 3

The Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2020: They Are Barely Playing, But The Top 10 Pros Still Earned $340 Million

The 2019 season-capping victory for tennis star Ashleigh Barty was one she will not likely soon forget. Her triumph at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China, in November gave her a fourth title for the year and paid her $4.4 million, a record for any men’s or women’s tennis event, which pushed her winnings for 2019 to $11.3 million.



The prize money lands the Australian ace at No. 3 on this year’s ranking of the highest-paid female athletes, with a total haul of $13.1 million. She ranks well below global icon Serena Williams, who landed at No. 2 with $36 million, $32 million of which was paid out from endorsement deals. Both were eclipsed by Naomi Osaka, who earned just $3.4 million in prize money but landed at No. 1 with $37.4 million thanks to her own massive sponsor roster.&nbsp;



For female athletes out to get rich from their dominance, tennis is the go-to sport. Nine of the world’s ten highest-paid female athletes make their living with a racket, with the only exception this year being Alex Morgan, co-captain of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, who lands at No. 10 with $4.6 million. The aces can thank Rosie Casals.



Casals, whose 112 doubles tournament titles are the second-highest total ever, was one of nine female tennis players, dubbed the Original 9, who broke ranks with the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association a half-century ago to protest the dollar difference between male and female prize money, which reached as high as 12-to-1 at events. The fight—which led to players including Casals and her longtime doubles partner Billie Jean King being banned from events sanctioned by the USLTA—gave birth to the Virginia Slims Tour, which later morphed into the WTA.&nbsp;



“We knew what we were doing was very important, but in some ways, we didn’t have anything to lose,” says Casals, who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tour’s first event next month. “I’m proud to see where women’s tennis is 50 years later and to know that we were instrumental in the success of the game today.”



The U.S. Open was the first Grand Slam tournament to offer gender pay equality, in 1973, but it would be 28 years before another Slam followed suit: the Australian Open in 2001. The biggest tennis events now pay equal prize money to men and women; Wimbledon in 2007 was the last Grand Slam to update its payouts. But it was a long road for women’s tennis players, who faced the same fight for better pay that athletes in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanaglass/2020/05/02/federal-judge-upends-us-womens-national-teams-fight-for-equal-pay/">soccer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanaglass/2020/01/14/wnba-players-union-reach-progressive-eight-year-collective-bargaining-agreement/">basketball</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolschram/2019/08/29/this-falls-dream-gap-tour-sees-top-womens-hockey-players-working-to-advance-their-game/">hockey</a>&nbsp;have tackled in recent years.



Outside of prize money, Osaka and Williams remain tennis’ only female superstars, with Osaka setting a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/05/22/naomi-osaka-is-the-highest-paid-female-athlete-ever-topping-serena-williams/">record for female athletes</a>&nbsp;this year, beating the earnings record set by Maria Sharapova in 2015 when she earned&nbsp;$29.7 million and unseating Williams, who held the No. 1 position for the past four years.



Osaka scored a slew of new endorsement deals following her back-to-back Grand Slam titles at the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Australian Open, including Nike&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nike" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NKE</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nike">+1.2%</a>, which committed roughly $10 million annually to win her away from Adidas. Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners, including global brands like Nissan Motor, Shiseido and Yonex.



Morgan is the lone non-tennis player to crack the top ten, thanks to a massive endorsement portfolio worth ten times as much as her roughly $400,000 on-field salary and bonus last year. She has more than a dozen current sponsors, including Nike, Coca-Cola&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/coca-cola" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">KO</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/coca-cola">+0.4%</a>, Volkswagen and AT&amp;T. Her latest is an Alex Morgan Barbie Doll, as part of the brand’s Role Model Series.



Morgan’s fellow U.S. women’s national soccer team co-captain Megan Rapinoe just missed the top ten with an estimated $4.2 million. Her profile and earnings soared after she led the U.S. to the 2019 World Cup championship as the tournament’s Golden Boot&nbsp;winner and became a cultural icon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2019/07/22/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Rapinoe.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">following attacks by President Donald Trump</a>. In addition to a lucrative book deal, she cashed in with a flurry of speaker engagements, with fees approaching six figures. Rapinoe also endorses Nike, Budweiser, BodyArmor, Visa and at least a half-dozen more brands.



“We can’t be complacent,” Casals says about the ongoing pay disparity between men and women. “We must continue to improve the exposure and profile of the women’s game so the value continues to rise. We were fortunate, but we need more women in places of power in business.”



Our earnings tally looks at prize money, salaries, bonuses, endorsements and appearance fees between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020. The time frame means the coronavirus had only a marginal impact as tennis players missed out on prize money from just two and a half months of missed events. But earnings will be down significantly in next year’s accounting. In addition to the cancellation of Wimbledon, the WTA canceled its seven events in China scheduled for October and November, including the lucrative WTA Finals. Prize money for the events in China would have totaled&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/sports/tennis/wta-tour-china-tournaments-canceled.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">roughly $30 million</a>. Almost all players will also have reductions in their apparel and racket contracts for not meeting minimum play requirements.



1. Naomi Osaka



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="401" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1198783851-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45396" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1198783851-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gettyimages-1198783851-594x594-1-300x203.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $37.4 million



Prize Money: $3.4 million



Endorsements: $34 million



Osaka held dual citizenship growing up but made the wise choice to represent Japan ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, now scheduled for 2021. The decision made her an even hotter commodity for Olympic sponsors, like Procter &amp; Gamble&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/procter-gamble" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PG</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/procter-gamble">+0.7%</a>, All Nippon Airways and Nissin, which signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games. Among all tennis players, only Roger Federer made more than Osaka from endorsements.



2. Serena Williams



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="698" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-1024x698.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47139" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-1024x698.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-scaled-300x205.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-scaled-600x409.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-768x524.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-1536x1047.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/RTS2LTFE-2048x1397.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by REUTERS/Carl Recine) </figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $36 million



Prize Money: $4 million



Endorsements: $32 million



Endorsement partners like Nike, Gatorade, Procter &amp; Gamble and Beats get a boost from Serena’s massive social media following of nearly 40 million fans across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian, are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/07/21/serena-williams-natalie-portman-and-uswnt-legends-part-of-female-ownership-group-bringing-womens-professional-soccer-to-los-angeles/">part of an investment group</a>&nbsp;that was awarded the newest National Women’s Soccer League expansion team in Los Angeles this summer. Their daughter, Olympia, is also part of the group and at 2 years old became the youngest known professional sports team owner.



3. Ashleigh Barty



Total Earnings: $13.1 million



Prize Money: $10.1 million



Endorsements: $3 million



Barty won her first career Slam at the 2019 French Open, triggering lucrative bonuses from sponsors Fila and Head. She also endorses Rado, Jaguar, Vegemite, Banana Boat, and Esmi. In June 2019, she became the first Australian woman ranked No. 1 since 1976.



4. Simona Halep



Total Earnings: $10.9 million



Prize Money: $6.9 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Halep added her second career Slam title at Wimbledon last year, and her $36.5 million in career prize money ranks fourth all-time. (Williams is first at $93 million.) Halep’s sponsors include global brands Nike, Wilson, Hublot and Avon, as well as several more in her native Romania.



5. Bianca Andreescu



Total Earnings: $8.9 million



Prize Money: $4.9 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Andreescu made history as the first Canadian, male or female, to win a Grand Slam event when she captured the 2019 U.S. Open. The title and her No. 5 year-end world ranking triggered lucrative bonuses from sponsor Nike, which renegotiated her contract earlier in the year. Since the Open title, she’s added deals with Rolex, Gatorade, Canadian paper company Royale, and Sleep Country mattresses.



6. Garbiñe Muguruza



Total Earnings: $6.6 million



Prize Money: $2.1 million



Endorsements: $4.5 million



The Spanish-Venezuelan tennis star’s runner-up finish at this year’s Australian Open was only her second time advancing past the fourth round of a Grand Slam since her 2017 Wimbledon title. But she maintains a strong endorsement portfolio with Adidas, Beats, Rolex, Cesar insurance, Babolat and Maui Jim sunglasses. Her Adidas deal is one of the bigger apparel deals in the sport.



7. Elina Svitolina



Total Earnings: $6.4 million



Prize Money: $5.4 million



Endorsements: $1 million



The Ukrainian reached the semifinals of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019, and she matched her career-high No. 3 world ranking. Svitolina counts Nike, Wilson, Hublot, Damilano Barolo wines, and EAFit nutrition products as sponsors.



8. Sofia Kenin



Total Earnings: $5.8 million



Prize Money: $4.8 million



Endorsements: $1 million



Kenin won the Australian Open in January, building on her WTA Most Improved Player Award in 2019. At 21, she was the youngest American to win a Slam since Serena Williams in 2002. Her main sponsors are Fila and Babolat.



9. Angelique Kerber



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47144" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1090048146-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $5.3 million



Prize Money: $1.3 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Kerber’s three Grand Slam wins since the start of 2016 are the most in women’s tennis. Her most lucrative sponsorship deal is with Adidas, which has partnered with the German tennis star since 2013. Other endorsements include Yonex, Generali, Porsche and Lavazza.



10. Alex Morgan



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="647" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-1024x647.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47143" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-1024x647.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-scaled-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-scaled-600x379.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-768x485.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-1536x971.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-1159663800-2048x1295.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Total Earnings: $4.6 million



Salary/bonus: $400,000



Endorsements: $4.2 million



Morgan extended her deal with Nike after the 2019 World Cup with a clause that guaranteed pay for 18 months even if she was not playing. Nike had previously been criticized for a lack of maternity protection in its contracts with female athletes. Morgan gave birth to her first child in May. She is launching her own media company, with more details expected by the end of the year.



-Kurt Badenhausen,Forbes Staff

Rogers Cup Toronto – Day 7

Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2020: 50 Years After Creation Of Women’s Tour, Tennis Dominates Earnings List

The 22-year-old Japanese tennis player racked up $37 million in earnings in the past year, more than any other female athlete in history.



Naomi Osaka was only a year old when Serena Williams won her first grand slam title in 1999. Nineteen years later, Osaka beat Williams at the U.S. Open finals to win her first grand slam. It was one of the most controversial matches in Open history involving three code violations called against Williams. Now the 22-year-old ace has beaten her legendary rival once again, this time for bragging rights as the highest-paid female athlete in the world.



Osaka earned $37.4 million the last 12 months from prize money and endorsements, $1.4 million more than Serena, setting an all-time earnings record for any female athlete in a single year; Maria Sharapova held the prior record with $29.7 million in 2015.



Osaka ranks No. 29 among the 100 highest-paid athletes, while Williams is No. 33. It’s the first time since 2016 that two women have made the ranks of the top 100 highest paid athletes, with the full 2020 list set for release next week.



“To those outside the tennis world, Osaka is a relatively fresh face with a great back story,” says David Carter, a sports business professor at USC Marshall School of Business. “Combine that with being youthful and bicultural, two attributes that help her resonate with younger, global audiences, and the result is the emergence of a global sports marketing icon.”



The ascension puts an end to a decisive winning streak for Williams, who has been the world’s highest-paid female athlete each of the past four years, with annual pre-tax income ranging from $18 million to $29 million. The 23-time grand slam champion has collected almost $300 million during her career from endorsers who have swarmed the 38-year-old star.



Osaka’s rise to the head of the charts was a perfect&nbsp; convergence of several factors. She first proved herself on the court, with back-to-back grand slam titles at the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open. That plus her heritage—a Japanese mother and Haitian-American father—helped separate her from the pack; at only 20 when she won her Open title, she had a cool factor and engaging personality.



Osaka’s roots are crucial to her endorsement stardom. She was born in Japan. When she was three, she and her family moved to the U.S., settling on Long Island and then heading to Florida; older sister, Mari, also plays on the pro circuit.



She turned pro in 2014, a month before her 16th birthday. She cracked the WTA’s top 40 in 2016 and won her first title in March 2018 at Indian Wells. In the 12 months that followed, she became the first Japanese player to win a slam, and first Asian tennis player ever to be ranked No. 1 in the world.



Osaka maintains dual citizenship but made the wise choice to represent Japan ahead of the since-postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The decision made her an even hotter commodity for Olympic sponsors, like Procter &amp; Gamble, All Nippon Airways and Nissin, who signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games, now scheduled for summer 2021. She is expected to be one of the faces of the Olympics that had triggered<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.olympic.org/news/unprecedented-levels-of-excitement-around-the-olympic-games-tokyo-2020" target="_blank"> unprecedented levels of excitement</a> among the Japanese public before the coronavirus.



A Decade Of Highest-Paid Female Athletes



Tennis has been a winning strategy for highest-paid female athletes. Before Naomi Osaka arrived on the scene, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams were the top earning women of the decade, holding the top spot for five and four years, respectively.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings.png" alt="" class="wp-image-45395" width="688" height="447" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings.png 755w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings-300x195.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings-600x391.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px" /></figure>



The last top-earning female athlete, outside of Williams and Sharapova, was Serena’s sister Venus in 2003. Tennis remains the only route for women to rank among the top-paid male sports stars. Sharapova, Li Na, Serena, and now Osaka are the only females to rank among the 100 top earners in sports since 2012. The highest-paid female athlete every year since Forbes started tracking the data in 1990 has been a tennis player, with Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis the top earners most of the 1990s. 



Tennis players are walking billboards in the only major global sport where men and women have some level of equality in their paychecks, thanks to similarly sized audiences tuning in to watch tournaments. Prize money at the four grand slam events has been even since 2007, although men still earn more at lower level tourneys.



The demographics of the tennis fan make sponsoring top players attractive for brands. At the U.S. Open last year, attendance skewed in favor of women by a ratio of 56 to 44, a rarity at big time sporting events; 78% held at least a bachelor’s degree versus 35% for the U.S. overall; the average household income was $216,000. This is a group with significant disposable income, ready to buy apparel, sporting equipment, cars, watches and financial services.



Steering Osaka’s brand is tennis powerhouse agency IMG, which leaned on its history with breakout female tennis stars when Osaka started blowing up, having represented Maria Sharapova and Li. Stuart Duguid is her lead agent at IMG.



The apparel deal is almost always the biggest endorsement for tennis stars, and Osaka’s timing was perfect there as well, as she hit the open market just after winning two grand slams. It triggered a free agency bidding war between Nike and Adidas—her previous apparel sponsor. The Swoosh emerged on top and paid her more than $10 million last year in an agreement that runs through 2025.



Osaka secured an extremely rare but lucrative provision in her Nike contract. The sportswear giant always requires its tennis players to be clad in Nike gear from head to toe, without any other logos on their shirts or hats. This is lucrative real estate for marketers, as cameras focus closely on the player as they serve or get set to return serve.



Nike never made an exemption for Serena, Sharapova, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi or any of the other marketable tennis stars in their stable. The only exception until last year was China’s Li Na; Osaka was the second, thanks to massive leverage with Sharapova headed for retirement and Williams turning 39 this year. Her “patch” deals are with All Nippon Airways, MasterCard and ramen noodle maker Nissin Foods.



Nike plans to launch an Osaka streetwear line in Japan in the fourth quarter, featuring hoodies, leggings and shirts, as well as a new collection each season. There will not be any tennis apparel.



Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners, including global brands like Nissan Motor, Shiseido and Yonex, whose tennis racquets she has used for more than a decade; almost all are worth seven-figures annually.&nbsp;



Sharapova was 17 when she defeated Williams to win the 2004 Wimbledon crown. IMG quickly mobilized to lock up lucrative long-term deals for the Russian, who ranked as the highest-paid female athlete for 11 years before injuries and a suspension for taking a banned substance dented her earnings.



IMG got an education on marketing a female Asian tennis star with China’s Li. She was the first grand slam singles champion from Asia, man or woman, when she captured the 2011 French Open at age 29. IMG quickly secured seven multi-million deals, pushing her off-court earnings from $2 million to $20 million. She challenged Sharapova as the sport’s top earner until her retirement in 2014.



IMG used its expertise in Japan with Kei Nishikori, who has never won a grand slam but is the most successful Japanese male player ever, resulting in an endorsement portfolio worth $30 million a year.



Sharapova, Li and Nishikori paved the way for Osaka’s marketing breakthrough. “We were fortunate to have a very sophisticated office in Tokyo that already had the experience with Kei,” IMG’s head of tennis Max Eisenbud told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last year. “The relationships in that region are important.”



With plenty of endorsement cash, Osaka<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/23/business-is-booming-for-tennis-ace-naomi-osaka/#b711e54904de"> partnered with several brands</a> last year, with significant equity components, including emerging sports drink BodyArmor and Hyperice, which makes recovery and movement products.



BodyArmor marketing exec Mike Fedele says Osaka was one of inspirations for its “Only You” ad campaign&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timnewcomb/2020/05/20/naomi-osaka-shares-on-endorsements-bodyarmor-her-struggles-and-cooking/#a06627639a84">launched this week</a>. “Naomi is fiercely dedicated to perfecting her game on the court and a huge part of that is what she does off the court with her training, nutrition and hydration,”he says.



“I’m really interested in seeing a young business grow and adding value to that process,” Osaka told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last year. “I tasked my team with finding brands that align with my personality and my interests.”



Brands are lining up to get into the Naomi Osaka business.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney">SportsMoney</a>

Naomi Osaka Is The Highest-Paid Athlete Ever, Topping Serena Williams

Roger Federer,&nbsp;Novak Djokovic&nbsp;and&nbsp;Rafael Nadal&nbsp;are kicking off play at the U.S. Open as the three favorites to win the title and take home a Grand Slam-record $3.85 million payday as the singles champion. The Big Three are a good bet, having captured 53 out of 63 Slams since the start of 2004, including the last 11.



The on-court dominance has produced a combined $373 million in career prize money for the trio, light years ahead of their peers. But the money off the court is even sweeter for Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, to the tune of a cumulative $1.2 billion during their careers from endorsement partners and appearance fees.



Federer is the highest-paid tennis player for the 14th straight year, with $93.4 million from prize money, endorsements and appearance fees in the 12 months ending June 1. It is a record tally by a tennis player.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Inside Serena Williams’ Plan To Ace Venture Investing (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/06/05/inside-serena-williams-plan-to-ace-venture-investing/" target="_blank">Inside Serena Williams’ Plan To Ace Venture Investing</a>



His sponsor portfolio is unmatched in sports, with a dozen partners together paying him more than $60 million a year, well ahead of other global sports icons like&nbsp;Tiger Woods,&nbsp;LeBron James&nbsp;and&nbsp;Cristiano Ronaldo. 



Credit Federer’s long run at the top—his Slam titles span 15 years—and the strong demographics of tennis fans, who spend heavily on equipment, apparel, cars, watches and financial services. The global nature of the sport also allows brands to use the players in marketing around the world.



Federer turned 38 this month, and Father Time will catch up at some point, but Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo is&nbsp;betting $300 million&nbsp;that Federer will continue to resonate with fans long after he hangs up his racket. 



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbeswomanafrica.com/wealth/2019/08/26/business-is-booming-for-tennis-ace-naomi-osaka-on-track-to-be-the-highest-paid-female-athlete/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Business Is Booming For Tennis Ace Naomi Osaka, On Track To Be The Highest-Paid Female Athlete (opens in a new tab)">Business Is Booming For Tennis Ace Naomi Osaka, On Track To Be The Highest-Paid Female Athlete</a>



After two decades with Nike, Federer signed a ten-year deal with Uniqlo last year that is guaranteed whether he is playing or not. In the coming months, Federer will also likely take back control of his RF logo, which stayed with Nike after their split.



After a two-year Slam drought, Djokovic has roared back to capture four of the past five majors. The titles helped push his 12-month earnings to $50.6 million, including $30 million off the court from appearances and sponsors Lacoste, Head, Asics, Seiko, NetJets and Ultimate Software. He ranks as the second-highest-paid tennis player.



Rounding out the top five players are&nbsp;Kei Nishikori&nbsp;($37.3 million), Nadal ($35 million) and&nbsp;Serena Williams&nbsp;($29.2 million).



Tennis is the only major sport in which women and men are in the same zip code in terms of earnings. The U.S. Open was the first Slam to offer equal payouts for the men’s and women’s events, and now each of the four Slams has equal pay. While Williams was the only woman to crack&nbsp;Forbes&#8216; 100&nbsp;highest-paid athletes&nbsp;this year, the top ten earners in tennis are split evenly between men and women.



The top ten collectively made $312 million,&nbsp;up 23% from last year, fueled by huge gains by Federer, Djokovic and&nbsp;Naomi Osaka. See the full top ten below.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">10. Sloane Stephens</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1142602393/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Mutua Madrid Open Masters v day 7"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $9.6 million



Prize money: $4.1 million



Endorsements: $5.5 million



The 2017 U.S. Open champion returns to Flushing Meadows this year&nbsp;wearing a tennis shoe&nbsp;based on the “Aqua” colorway of Nike’s retro Air Jordan VIII. Her Nike pact, which began last year, is one of the biggest in the sport. Stephens recently announced her engagement to soccer star Jozy Altidore.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">9. Simona Halep</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1163387350/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="The Championships - Wimbledon 2019"/><figcaption>CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $10.2 million



Prize money: $6.2 million



Endorsements: $4 million



Halep has won only one event in 2019, but it was a big one: Wimbledon, and its $3 million payday, her second career Grand Slam title. The Romanian pro counts Nike, Wilson, Mercedes-Benz and Hublot among her sponsors.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">8. Angelique Kerber</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1158622069/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Nature Valley International - Day Four"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $11.3 million



Prize money: $5.3 million



Endorsements: $6 million



Kerber triggered lucrative bonuses from sponsors, namely Adidas, with her 2018 Wimbledon title and year-end rank of second in the world. In addition to Adidas, the German pro has also renewed deals with SAP, Generali and NetJets since Wimbleon and recently inked a new pact with Procter &amp; Gamble’s Head &amp; Shoulders brand. Other endorsements include Yonex, Porsche, Rolex and Lavazza.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">7. Alexander Zverev</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1160486313/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Rogers Cup Montreal - Day 8"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $11.8 million



Prize money: $6.3 million



Endorsements: $5.5 million



The 22-year-old German is a rising star on the ATP Tour and has 11 career titles, including the 2018 year-end ATP Finals, which was worth $2.5 million in prize money. He has a large deal with Adidas, in addition to endorsements with Head, Peugeot, Richard Mille and Zegna.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">6. Naomi Osaka</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1168056730/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Western &amp; Southern Open - Day 5"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $24.3 million



Prize money: $8.3 million



Endorsements: $16 million



Osaka will see her endorsement number soar even higher, having signed a series of deals since her 2018 U.S. Open win. The biggest is with Nike, which was inked just ahead of our June 1 cutoff and is worth an estimated $10 million annually. She also recently added a series of endorsement partners—Hyperice, BodyArmor and Muzik—where&nbsp;she received equity stakes&nbsp;in the businesses.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">5. Serena Williams</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1160435948/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Rogers Cup Toronto - Day 6"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $29.2 million



Prize money: $4.2 million



Endorsements: $25 million



The world&#8217;s&nbsp;highest-paid female athlete&nbsp;four years running had a record year off the court after her return to tennis following the birth of daughter Olympia. She added deals with Pampers, Axa Financial and General Mills to her roster.&nbsp;Williams&#8217; next act is&nbsp;tackling venture investing, focused largely on companies led by women or people of color.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">4. Rafael Nadal</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1161098596/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Rogers Cup Montreal - Day 10"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $35 million



Prize money: $9 million



Endorsements: $26 million



The Spaniard is one of the biggest draws in tennis and can command appearance fees of more than $1 million a pop. His primary sponsors include Nike, Babolat, Kia Motors, Telefónica, Richard Mille and Mapfre.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">3. Kei Nishikori</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1160287842/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="TENNIS: AUG 07 Coupe Rogers"/><figcaption>ICON SPORTSWIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $37.3 million



Prize money: $4.3 million



Endorsements: $33 million



Nishikori and Zverev are the only non-Slam winners among the ten highest-paid tennis players. But Nishikori&#8217;s robust endorsement portfolio is fueled by his status as the most successful Japanese player ever. He is set to be one of the faces of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. His sponsors Asahi, NTT, Japan Airlines, Lixil, Procter &amp; Gamble and Nissin are all official Olympics partners.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2. Novak Djokovic</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1168302451/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Western &amp; Southern Open - Day 6"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $50.6 million



Prize money: $20.6 million



Endorsements: $30 million



There have been ten tennis seasons in which a player won more than $12 million in prize money. Djokovic owns seven of those years. His $135 million in career prize money has him $9 million ahead of Federer. Djokovic&#8217;s Lacoste endorsement is one of the richest deals in the sport.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">1. Roger Federer</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/1161645059/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Day Eleven: The Championships - Wimbledon 2019"/><figcaption>GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



Total earnings: $93.4 million



Prize money: $7.4 million



Endorsements: $86 million



In addition to his blockbuster Uniqlo pact, Federer added a multimillion-dollar deal with Rimowa last year. The luggage brand joined Credit Suisse, Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Moet &amp; Chandon, Barilla and others in Fed&#8217;s endorsement stable.



-Kurt Badenhausen; Forbes

gettyimages-1088687724-594×594

The Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2019: Roger Federer Scores A Record $93 Million

On Serena Williams’ calendar—which is to calendars what Jackson Pollock paintings are to art—Saturdays are designated family time. The Saturday I’m with her in Rome (she was in New York earlier in the week and will be in Paris the following one) carries extra significance. Exactly four years ago, in exactly that Eternal City, she met her husband, Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of online community Reddit. 



The two celebrate, in part, with the kind of outing anyone who’s not the most famous woman athlete in the world takes for granted: a stroll in a hotel garden with their joint venture, 22-month-old Olympia, in tow. It’s more romantic than it sounds: The Rome Cavalieri goes so far as to call its 15-acre garden a “private park,” littered with marble and bronze, lions and unicorns.



The regal surroundings befit a historic figure of American sport, who has 23 Grand Slam titles and has blown away any number of barriers and stereotypes. And the unicorns? Between Reddit and his <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2018/07/09/at-initialized-capital-odd-couple-alexis-ohanian-and-garry-tan-look-to-do-vc-differently/#538f46b63efe" target="_blank">$500 million fund, Initialized Capital</a>, Ohanian does his part. But it turns out that Williams has quietly been playing that game, too. 



She’s now the first athlete ever to hit Forbes’ annual list of the World’s Richest Self-Made Women, with an estimated fortune of $225 million, the vast majority of it having come via her brain and brand rather than her backhand. And over the past five years, she’s been quietly dropping money into 34 startups. In April, Williams formally announced that Serena Ventures is open for business, to fund others and launch companies herself.



Athletes are richer than ever, thanks to the explosion in TV rights fees for live sporting events, which trickle down to players. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2018/06/05/mayweather-messi-lead-the-worlds-highest-paid-athletes-2018/#8d0173f2e26b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">50 highest-paid athletes</a>&nbsp;in the world made $2.6 billion last year, versus $1 billion 15 years ago. And Williams is hardly the first to put newfound disposable income to active work—in the NBA alone, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/02/12/the-nbas-highest-paid-players-2019-lebron-james-leads-with-89-million/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">all launched media companies</a>, and Durant, Andre Iguodala and Carmelo Anthony are active venture capital investors. But she is one of the few specifically gearing investments around a single north star: herself.



“I want to be a part of it,” she says, sitting at the hotel. “I want to be in the infrastructure. I want to be the brand, instead of just being the face.” Given her longtime background in style and design, that means overweighting on fashion lines, jewelry and beauty products. Yes, she’ll keep competing at tennis—her resilient comeback last year after giving birth burnished her as a cultural icon who transcends sports. And sure, she’ll happily continue to rake in easy endorsement money from the likes of Nike and JPMorgan Chase—her $29 million total income over the past 12 months is the highest of her career.&nbsp;



But like a ground stroke with torque, Williams bets she can eventually dwarf those figures by leveraging some of her own cash with her name and fame.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf542ffcd1f12000a2b45f8/1920x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Serena Williams"/><figcaption>Power Game: Williams invested in 34 startups over the past five years. The value of her portfolio has doubled to more than $10 million.ADAM PRETTY/GETTY IMAGES</figcaption></figure>



The story of how sisters Serena and Venus Williams reached the top of the tennis world is the stuff of Hollywood legend: A black father with limited tennis experience homeschools his two daughters and teaches them on the streets of Compton, California, to penetrate and then dominate a lily-white sport. “You’d see different people walking down the street with AK-47s and think, &#8216;Time to get in the house,&#8217;” she remembers of those early years. “When you hear gunshots, you get low.



Their father’s insistence that his precocious daughters avoid the private tennis academy machine and well-oiled junior tournament circuit left a mark on the younger one, especially after she won her first Grand Slam title at age 17. “It really shaped me for the rest of my career both on and off the court in terms of taking a chance and how to be different and how to stand out,” Williams says of his strategy. When everyone zigs, she zags.



So at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.serenaventures.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Serena Ventures</a>, she focuses on companies founded by women and minorities. Yes, there’s a social purpose to that decision. But as with her tennis upbringing, she’s also finding opportunity by avoiding the herd. Just&nbsp;<a href="https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/the-vc-female-founders-dashboard" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2.3% of the total venture capital</a>invested last year in the U.S. went to women-led startups—and even when including firms with both a male and female founder, you’re just at 10%. The numbers are worse for black and Hispanic founders. Yet some 60% of Williams’ investments so far have gone to companies led by women or people of color. “What better way to preach that message?” asks Williams.



The only way to find enough of those companies right now is to nurture them early, something that Williams got hooked on after investing and losing (eventually) $250,000 in a startup in the years before Serena Ventures. “I learned you can’t overspend, but I also learned that I love seed investing,” she says. Of the 34 companies she’s backed through Serena Ventures, more than three quarters are early-stage.&nbsp;



“It’s fun to get in there. I don’t gamble. I don’t jump off buildings,” says Williams. “I’m the most non-taking-a-chance kind of a person, but I felt like seed was where we wanted to be.”&nbsp;



Given the exponential riskiness involved in pre- and early-revenue companies, Williams has built a team of Silicon Valley mentors around her, much as Patrick Mouratoglou has guided Williams on the court and WME’s Jill Smoller has handled her endorsements—almost a quarter-billion worth—for nearly two decades. There’s Chris Lyons, from Andreessen Horowitz, who is an informal advisor and friend. “She is more passionate than 99% of the people in this space,” says Lyons. “She’s reaching out to me regularly asking what we think of companies.”



There’s Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, a longtime friend, with whom she serves on the board of SurveyMonkey.&nbsp;“I always ask her advice in a lot of different areas,” Williams says. (The tennis star is also on the board of the social shopping platform Poshmark.)



But one mentor stands above the rest—the one she married. “I’ve been really leaning on Alexis,” she says. Williams had never heard of Reddit when the pair met in 2015 and Ohanian knew little about tennis. But they bonded over ambition. “She is determined to be great at everything she does,” says Ohanian, who&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates is worth $70 million on his own.&nbsp;



His venture firm’s targets are traditionally more tech-focused—big scores include Instacart and Patreon. But in living through Ohanian’s deals, Williams has learned. Initialized and Serena Ventures have even co-invested on a few, including Gobble, which does weekly dinner-kit deliveries, and Wave, which offers no-fee transfers on money sent to Africa by phone. “I’d like to call us a more modern business family,” says Williams.



The rate of Williams’ investments has ramped up in lockstep with the onboarding of a portfolio manager. Alison Rapaport, 29, was fresh out of Harvard Business School with an M.B.A. after a five-year stint in JPMorgan’s asset-management group, when she got connected with Williams through Andreessen’s Lyons. Williams told Rapaport to come to the interview with three investment ideas, along with the numbers and rationale behind them. Rapaport did her homework on the investment ideas—and diligence on her potential new boss, who earlier in the week posted on Instagram how much she liked Taco Sunday. Rapaport arrived at Williams’ home outside San Francisco for a Sunday meeting at noon armed with investment ideas and two bags of takeout, make-your-own tacos, and she handled Ohanian’s rapid-fire follow-up emails with aplomb. “I knew this was our girl,” Williams says.&nbsp;



Serena Williams slides around the red clay of the Tennis Club Parioli in Rome a few days ahead of the Italian Open, practicing to an eclectic mix of musical genres whose only commonality is that they’re sung by powerful women, from Rihanna to Adele to Pink. As word spreads around the club that the world’s most famous tennis player is hitting balls in their midst, a crowd predictably gathers, the youngest among them squealing, “Serena!”, the oldest snapping and sharing pictures.



Williams is by far the most famous female athlete in the U.S.—and only Tom Brady and Tiger Woods finish a tick ahead among all athletes in terms of public awareness. And that fame carries almost no brand downside—her appeal rates above average across all demographics, from Millennials to blue collar to high income, says Henry Schafer, who tracks Q Scores, which measure the likeability of a celebrity.



After 20 years in the spotlight, Williams knows how to handle the star power. At the end of the two-hour session, she gracefully obliges several with autographs and selfies. But more important: She has figured out at Serena Ventures how to harness it.



The past decade has given rise to the celebrity VC investor, spurred by the success of people like the actor Ashton Kutcher and the musician Nas, who both have their own funds. The recent IPOs for Uber and Lyft included scores of musicians and Hollywood A-listers like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jay-Z and Olivia Munn, who got in early and cashed in big. Overall, Ohanian is skeptical of the trend.



 “The advice I generally give to founders is don’t take money from celebrities,” he says. “The only exception is when they are really going to add value. Because in most cases, they are not really familiar with this world and if you are doing it to feed your ego, it’s a bad idea.”



So Williams tries to put money in deals where her fame and brand and platform grow the pie. As one of the better product endorsers of this century, it’s something she’s honed in ways that most musicians and actors (who turn up their noses at most product deals) have not. She counts nearly 30 million followers across social media—her posts of herself wearing Nike’s swoosh generated more than $2 million in promotional value for the brand over the past 12 months, according to Hookit, which tracks celebrity influence on social media. “Serena is a once-in-a-generation voice, reaching a global audience that extends well beyond tennis,” says Hookit CEO Scott Tilton.



And that voice is amplified exponentially when dealing with an early-stage brand, rather than one like Nike. She shared a pair of videos in an Instagram story of her entourage eating Daily Harvest meals ahead of her hosting duties for the Met Gala. 



She collaborated with Neighborhood Goods, which brings a pop-up approach to retailing, for her clothing line. “Using her platform to talk about our mission was the biggest support we’ve had besides her capital,” says Georgina Gooley, cofounder of Billie, which makes razors priced to eliminate the “pink tax” that makes female-targeted products cost more than similar versions for men.



The dating and networking app Bumble added Williams as an endorser for 2019, including a Super Bowl ad. The pair also partnered in a pitch competition in which two winners with female founders were chosen for funding from Serena and Bumble. 



Three executives of companies in the Serena Ventures portfolio—Daily Harvest, the woman-centric co-working space The Wing, and Lola, a natural tampon brand—networked at the first-ever Bumble Fund Summit in April. “She is facilitating a place for people to connect with one another,” says Jordana Kier, Lola’s founder.



That kind of investor-as-rainmaker power translates into another benefit: deal flow. For more mature deals, traditional venture firms need to take large ownership stakes to hit return targets. Williams, though, is happy to ride along. “Firms know Serena is a hugely valuable strategic investor,” says Ohanian. “I think it is the best of all opportunities, and she can essentially cherry-pick from the top VC firms on deals that are interesting that come her way and at the same time she still has her own deal flow from folks who want her to invest.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5cf544339736330008aae5e7/1920x0.jpg?cropX1=0&amp;cropX2=2000&amp;cropY1=204&amp;cropY2=1088" alt="Serena Williams"/><figcaption>Change Agent: &#8220;A lot of people say what I do on the court is amazing, but I feel like that’s just the beginning,&#8221; says Serens Williams. &#8220;I want to be remembered for things I do off the court; lives I’ve been able to impact and voices that have been heard. Picture: LEVON BISS FOR FORBES</figcaption></figure>



Another benefit of early-stage investing: Even with 34 checks written, she has still sunk only an estimated $6 million into these companies. As venture investing goes, given her net worth, it’s still low-risk stuff. And the returns so far seem promising; Serena Ventures says they currently value the portfolio at more than $10 million and double the initial investment. Nearly half of the companies have had follow-up rounds of venture investment since Williams invested, and Serena Ventures even seems poised to score its first exit after Unilever announced plans to buy supplement firm Olly Nutrition in April. Five of her investments are up at least fivefold. Top performers include Billie, Daily Harvest, MasterClass and The Wing.



But Serena Williams wouldn’t be one of the all-time great competitors without also needing to invest more in herself. While she’s known as a fashion icon, she has cashed in only via others’ platforms, whether through endorsements or partnerships. Now that’s changing. Smoller, her longtime endorsement agent, recalls a recent meeting at Nike. “I was talking, and Serena interrupted me and started asking all these questions about their distribution channels, KPIs and growth strategies,” he says. “I looked around and saw their faces. . . . She’s at a level where she wants to understand the process and methods, which I think a lot of people don’t expect.”&nbsp;In May last year, Serena Ventures launched a self-funded, direct-to-consumer clothing line, S by Serena. She kept waiting for someone to fund a company for her to design clothing, she says, but “I was thinking of this the wrong way. I had to invest in myself.”&nbsp;



The line includes dresses, jackets, tops, denim and more, mostly priced under $200. She’s excited about an S by Serena show for New York Fashion Week in September. The line got a boost in October when Williams’ close friend Meghan Markle was spotted wearing the collection’s “Boss” blazer, which quickly sold out on the website. Williams returned the favor when she hosted a baby shower for the Duchess of Sussex in February. Williams plans to launch an S by Serena jewelry line this year and one of beauty products in 2020.&nbsp;



With all this commerce, Williams says she’ll continue to abbreviate her on-the-court schedule, prioritizing the Grand Slam events that burnish her brand. While a dinosaur in the tennis world at 37, she still figures she has two or maybe even three years left. “I am in no rush to get out of this sport,” she says. But in Serena Ventures, she’s laid the foundation to keep playing the game her entire life. “I want to create a brand that has longevity, kind of like my career,” she says. “It’s not fancy, it’s not here, it’s not out, it’s not trendy, it’s a staple, like my tennis game.”



&#8211;Kurt Badenhausen; Forbes Staff

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Inside Serena Williams’ Plan To Ace Venture Investing

Shonda Rhimes may have defined Thursday night television, but she&#8217;s now dictating the medium&#8217;s future. When the&nbsp;Grey&#8217;s Anatomy&nbsp;creator signed a nine figure, four-year deal with Netflix last year, she cemented her place&nbsp;at the forefront of entertainment&#8217;s digital future-and pioneered Netflix&#8217;s handsome producer paydays.
Rhimes, who created and executive produced ABC hits including&nbsp;Scandaland&nbsp;How To Get Away with Murder, is now developing eight shows for the streaming service through her production outfit ShondaLand.
&#8220;We are powerful women and when we say we have power, what we are really saying is that we deserve to have power. We deserve whatever good thing it is that we are getting,&#8221; said&nbsp;Rhimes at&nbsp;Elle&nbsp;magazine’s 25th annual Women in Hollywood celebration.
<blockquote>Demanding what you deserve can feel like a radical act.</blockquote>
Worth an estimated $135 million, Rhimes is the wealthiest female showrunner&#8211;the person who oversees writing and production of each TV episode-in&nbsp;Hollywood. She has said that her deal, which&nbsp;reportedly&nbsp;includes a base salary of $150 million with incentives that could bump it much higher, is bigger than the $300 million secured by Ryan Murphy.
Rhimes is just one of the world&#8217;s most powerful women in media and entertainment effecting change and impacting her industry with groundbreaking deals and inclusive storytelling. Take Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who has&nbsp;helped pioneer&nbsp;Star Wars&#8216; most inclusive casting yet.&nbsp;Under Kennedy&#8217;s stewardship, Kelly Marie Tran became the first woman of color to have a lead role in the multi-billion dollar franchise, playing Rose Tico in 2017&#8217;s&nbsp;The Last Jedi.
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Across the lot, Dana Walden has seen her power grow in the studio landscape. Following Disney&#8217;s $71.3 billion acquisition of the majority of&nbsp;21st Century Fox, the former chair and CEO of Fox Television Group will also head up 20th Century Fox TV, ABC Studios, the Freeform network, ABC-owned TV stations, ABC Entertainment and several other divisions.
Walden believes more women need to be in decision-making roles at every level. &#8220;There must be women in the highest ranks of every organization, and meaningful female representation on every corporate board,&#8221; Walden&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/11/01/15-most-powerful-women-in-entertainment-and-media-2017-effecting-change-tackling-sexual-harassment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/11/01/15-most-powerful-women-in-entertainment-and-media-2017-effecting-change-tackling-sexual-harassment/">told Forbes last year</a>.
<blockquote>Our recruiting and our training has to be oriented to ensure that we’re identifying and nurturing future generations of female leaders.</blockquote>
Entertainment&#8217;s most powerful&nbsp;span Hollywood, music and publishing. As each segment continues to deal with the fallout of the #MeToo movement, women have taken action. Anna Wintour, who continues to control&nbsp;Vogue,&nbsp;suspended photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino amid sexual misconduct charges and set a code of conduct for models and photographers.
Wintour teamed up with music power woman Beyoncé for the September issue of&nbsp;Vogue; she was given creative control over her cover photo and leveraged that power to hire the first African American photographer to shoot the cover in the magazine&#8217;s&nbsp; 126-year history. Another first for Beyoncé: In 2018, she became the first black woman to headline Coachella.
Here&#8217;s the full list of Media and Entertainment power women:
1. Oprah Winfrey, Media mogul
2. Shari Redstone, Vice Chair, CBS &amp; Viacom
3. Bonnie Hammer, Chair, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment
4. Donna Langley,&nbsp; Chair, Universal Pictures
5. Anna Wintour, Artistic Director, Conde Nast
6. Beyoncé, Singer
7. Dana Walden, Chairman, Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment
8. Katharine Viner, Editor-in-Chief, Guardian
9. Taylor Swift, Singer
10. Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist
11. Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm
12. Shonda Rhimes, Showrunner
13. Arianna Huffington, Founder &amp; CEO, Thrive Global
14. Serena Williams, Tennis player
15. Shobhana Bhartia, Chair, HT&nbsp;Media
16. Priyanka Chopra,&nbsp;Actress
&#8211;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Natalie Robehmed</a><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">:</a>&nbsp;I&#8217;m an associate editor at Forbes covering media and entertainment, with a focus on the movie business. For the magazine, I&#8217;ve written cover stories on&nbsp;
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2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival – Weekend 1 – Day 2

From Beyonce To Shonda Rhimes, The Most Powerful Women In Entertainment 2018

Venus Williams made her debut at Wimbledon in 1997. That same year, Wang Qiang, Noami Osaka and Jeļena Ostapenko were born. In 2017, Williams beat all three of them on the way to reaching her ninth Wimbledon final.
At 37, she’s the oldest player in the top 300 in the world and has been on the professional circuit for two decades. In that time, she has won seven Grand Slams and millions of hearts, has battled poverty, racism, sexism and her sister, Serena, who has collected more than three times the number of major trophies.
Imagine being as good as Venus Williams and not even being the best tennis player in your family. But she has filled her supporting role with grace and as her career winds down, she is being acknowledged as one of the greats of all time.
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Though the magic of the Williams sisters starts from their childhood, when their father Richard oversaw rigorous training sessions and insisted on top marks at school as well, Venus’ story is really about the second-half of her career.
In 2006, she suffered a wrist injury which plagued her for months and kept her out of competition. As a result, she slipped down the rankings to No.46, her lowest since being on the scene. After coming back in 2007, winning Wimbledon in 2008 and working her way back to No.2 on the rankings, she suffered a much more serious setback. In 2011, Venus was diagnosed with Sjogren&#8217;s Syndrome, an autoimmune condition that should sap her of the energy required to play elite sport. That year was the first time she failed to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam.
Her career appeared over, her flame extinguished.
By that stage, Serena was the headline act. She was the more successful sister, the stronger of the two and the more sassy in interviews. The leg-up her big sister provided – Venus was the runner-up in seven of Serena’s Grand Slam wins – was acknowledged as a novelty and Venus’ status as a role-model spoken of only as a sidebar to Serena’s. The truth is that as a pair, they provided young women and especially young black women with strikingly contrasting icons in a sport where they are under-represented.
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Tennis remains an elite and mostly white sport. While Serena showed how a power-house personality could force itself through that, Venus wove her way in with determination. Her resolve to play on despite a disease that causes muscle and joint pain provides a different kind of inspiration and she admitted it has not been easy.
“It has been a challenge, and a challenge to myself, and really just knowing that I can’t be defeated by anything,” she said on CNN’s Open Court in March 2014.
That year, Venus won the Dubai Tennis Championships to claim her first cup since 2010 and begin her resurgence. In 2015, she progressed to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and reached the fourth and quarter-final rounds of Wimbledon and the US Open respectively, but lost to Serena both times. In 2016, she reached the semi-final at Wimbledon, and in 2017, the final. And that too after enduring the angst of a fatality in a car-crash which preceded the tournament.
In early June, Venus was driving in Palm Beach when she was hit by another vehicle. The passenger in the other vehicle died two weeks later and there was an investigation into the incident which eventually cleared her of any wrongdoing. She broke down in tears in a pre-match press conference when quizzed about the effect the accident had on her mental state. Whatever it was, it did not stop her from reaching the Wimbledon final or looking beyond that.
Despite her age, Venus insists retirement is not on her mind just yet. There are still more barriers to break through.
As recently as January this year, a commentator at the Australian Open made a racist comment about Venus. ESPN’s Doug Adler said Venus had “put the gorilla effect on” her opponent Stefanie Voegele. The comparison drew widespread criticism but that does not mean the sisters will be free of the challenges that have dominated their time in the public eye.
Even some of their own peers are guilty. Pre-Wimbledon, John McEnroe, said in an interview on NPR to promote his memoir that Serena, the holder of the 23 Grand Slam titles, would likely rank 700 in the world if she played on the men&#8217;s circuit.
Serena, who has taken the rest of the year off while she has her first child, issued a curt response on Twitter in which she asked McEnroe to respect her privacy during her pregnancy.
The Williams’ baby will not be able to escape the spotlight forever though, especially not with a mother and aunt as famous as Serena and Venus. And while Serena will remain the superstar, Venus has shone every bit as bright. &#8211; Written by Firdose Moonda

The Superstar And The Star

<a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/serena-williams/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Serena Williams</a> has dominated her sport for 15 years, in a way that few other athletes have. She was the top-ranked player in the world in 2002 at age 20 and as recently as May at 35 (the oldest ever to hold the No. 1 spot). She’s won 86% of her matches, with an Open era-record 23 Grand Slam singles titles. Her career prize money of $84 million is more than twice as much as any other female athlete&#8217;s.
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-jordan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Jordan</a>, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/usain-bolt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Usain Bolt </a>and others are often hailed as the greatest athlete of all-time. Williams needs to be in the conversation, too.
Williams has been sidelined since January, when she won her 23rd Slam title with a win over sister Venus at the Australian Open. She revealed three months later that she was pregnant during the tournament. Despite the layoff, Williams still finds ways to dominate her peers. Her earnings between June 2016 and June 2017 of $27 million from prize money and endorsements are twice the total from any other female athlete in the world.
Williams rules <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/maria-sharapova/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maria Sharapova</a> on the court, with a streak of 18 straight wins against her rival, and for years earned more than double Sharapova&#8217;s prize money. But Williams typically lagged her among the top-earners because of lower off-the-court earnings. Sharapova was the highest-paid female athlete for 11 years until Williams unseated her in FORBES’ <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2016/06/06/serena-tops-sharapova-as-the-worlds-highest-paid-female-athlete/#1fa39a521fda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2016 look at the top-paid women</a> in sports.
Williams&#8217; endorsement earnings soared in recent years as marketers flocked to her while she became the elder stateswoman of tennis and approached the Open-era Grand Slam record of 22 held by Steffi Graf. Williams currently has more than a dozen endorsement partners, including Beats by Dre, Gatorade, JPMorgan Chase, Nike and Tempur-Pedic. Intel added her this year for a campaign with the message that high-tech equals high performance.
There has been a break in Williams’ tennis schedule, but she’s remained engaged with her sponsors and business interests. She joined SurveyMonkey’s board in May at the recommendation of fellow board member and Facebook chief operating officer <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheryl-sandberg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sheryl Sandberg</a>. Williams and her fiancée, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, are expecting their first child sometime in the next month. Williams expects to be back on the court early in 2018.
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/angelique-kerber/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Angelique Kerber</a>, who finished 2016 as the WTA Tour&#8217;s No. 1 player, ranks second with earnings of $12.6 million, including $7.6 million in prize money. The German tennis ace is not the most marketable player in tennis, but she secured lucrative bonuses from sponsors Adidas and Yonex for her top world ranking, US Open title and Wimbledon finals appearance. She also inked five new deals over the past 12 months, with SAP, Generali, Rolex, Slim Secrets and bareMinerals.
Tennis players dominate the highest-paid female athletes with eight of the top 10. It is the one major sport where, when comparing men and women, the money is in the same stratosphere. Williams trails <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/roger-federer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Roger Federer</a> ($64 million) in tennis, but she is not too far behind <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/novak-djokovic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Novak Djokovic</a> ($37.6 million), who ranks second in the sport for earnings. The gap is massive in golf, where <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/rory-mcilroy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rory McIlroy</a> ($50 million) out-earns Lydia Ko ($5.9 million) by more than eight-to-one. The divide is even worse in soccer, with <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/cristiano-ronaldo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cristiano Ronaldo</a> ($93 million) and Alex Morgan ($3.5 million) the top earners.
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<a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/danica-patrick/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Danica Patrick</a> ($12.2 million) and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/ronda-rousey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ronda Rousey</a> ($11 million) are the two non-tennis players in the women&#8217;s top 10, ranking third and fourth overall. Both have made inroads as marketable athletes in male-dominated sports.
Patrick has one more year left on her contract at Stewart-Haas Racing, but it is contingent on having a sponsor for her car in 2018. A sponsor is not lined up as of now. Patrick has 10 personal sponsors, including giants like Coca-Cola, Ford and Nationwide.
Rousey was the headliner at UFC 207 in December and secured a record-tying $3 million guarantee for the bout, plus her cut of the 1.1 million pay-per-view buys. She pocketed a sizable check for her role as coach this summer in the reboot of &#8220;Battle of the Network Stars&#8221; and endorses Reebok and Pantene. Next up: marrying fellow MMA fighter Travis Browne and filming &#8220;Mile 22&#8221; alongside <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/mark-wahlberg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Wahlberg</a>.
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Rounding out the top five is Venus Williams ($10.5 million), who reached her first Grand Slam final since 2009 in January when she fell to Serena at the Aussie Open. Williams has her own apparel line, Eleven, so her endorsement portfolio lacks the big Nike/Adidas deal that other top tennis players have. But Williams is still a big draw at 37 and commands hefty fees for tournaments and exhibitions.
Williams is also a hit on the speaking tour, with six-figure checks for revelations about her two decades in tennis, her fight for equal pay and her battle with the autoimmune disease Sjogren&#8217;s syndrome. Her endorsements include American Express, Jamba Juice, Silk and Wilson. In addition to shilling for Jamba Juice, Williams owns 10 of the smoothie and juice shops in the Washington, D.C., area. Her career prize money of $38 million ranks second all-time behind her sister&#8217;s.
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The biggest drop-off among the top female earners is Sharapova, who ranked No. 2 last year after ranking first for 11 years. Sharapova was sidelined for most of our 12-month tracking period while serving her 15-month suspension for use of the banned substance meldonium. American Express, Avon and Tag Heuer did not renew their sponsorship deals with Sharapova. She still maintains Nike, Head, Evian and Porsche in her endorsement portfolio, but those deals included massive reductions that kicked in with Sharapova off the tour for over a year and pushed her earnings below the $6 million cutoff.
Our earnings estimates include prize money, salaries, endorsements, bonuses, appearance fees and royalties for the 12 months between June 1, 2016, and June 1, 2017. The top 10 women made a combined $109 million, down 13% from last year. Other drop-offs besides Sharapova include <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/ana-ivanovic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ana Ivanovic</a>, who retired from tennis in December, and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/victoria-azarenka/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Victoria Azarenka</a>, who had a baby in December. &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, FORBES STAFF

Tag: Serena Williams

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