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If you have a daughter, and you dream of her amassing immense wealth through sporting excellence, you’d be well advised to put a tennis racquet in her hand.

The Forbes ‘Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2020’ list features nine tennis players in the top 10, with the only exception being the U.S. women’s national football (or soccer, as they call it) team co-captain, Alex Morgan.

She comes in at 10th, so yeah, tennis is where the big bucks are at.

That’s due in part to the fact that men and women receive equal tournament prize money, although endorsements also play a big role.

We’ll just focus on the top five below, starting with Canadian Bianca Andreescu:

• Total Earnings: $8.9 million
• Prize Money: $4.9 million
• Endorsements: $4 million

Fourth is Romanian Simona Halep:

• Total Earnings: $10.9 million
• Prize Money: $6.9 million
• Endorsements: $4 million

Third is Australian Ashleigh Barty:

• Total Earnings: $13.1 million
• Prize Money: $10.1 million
• Endorsements: $3 million

There’s a massive leap from Barty’s earnings, which are just north of $13 million, to second-placed Serena Williams:

• Total Earnings: $36 million
• Prize Money: $4 million
• Endorsements: $32 million

Serena has lucrative sponsorships deals with the likes of  Nike, Gatorade, Procter & Gamble, and Beats.

Still, not lucrative enough to catch the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 2020 (measured using prize money, salaries, bonuses, endorsements, and appearance fees between June 1, 2019, and June 1, 2020), Naomi Osaka.

The former world number one may have fallen to 10th in the WTA rankings, but she remains highly marketable:

• Total Earnings: $37.4 million
• Prize Money: $3.4 million
• Endorsements: $34 million

Osaka could have elected to represent the US, as she has dual citizenship, but choosing Japan has worked out rather well.

She has been heavily used in marketing leading up to the Tokyo Olympics (pushed back from this year until next year), and in terms of tennis players, only Roger Federer made more from endorsements during the same period.

The 10th highest-paid male athlete in 2020 took home $59,1 million, whereas Morgan, in 10th on the highest-paid female athlete list, took home $4,6 million.

[source:forbes]