Tennis Dominates List of Highest-Paid Female Athletes of 2023

Iga Świątek Tops the List with $23.9 Million in Earnings, Despite Overall Drop in Total Earnings of Top 20 Female Athletes

Iga Świątek, Eileen Gu and Coco Gauff are the top earners for the past 12 months as tennis players continue to dominate the annual pay ranking.
22-year-old Polish tennis star Iga Świątek made an estimated $23.9 million in 2023, becoming the new No. 1 in the list of the world’s highest-paid female athletes.
Twelve of the world’s 20 highest-paid female athletes, and nine of the top 10, come from the sport of tennis, which offers sizable prize money and ample marketing opportunities for female athletes.
The 20 top-earning women made an estimated $226 million in 2023, a 13% drop from 2022’s $258 million, attributed almost entirely to the loss of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka's tumble amid her long layoff.
Despite the momentum in women’s sports, female athletes’ pay still lags well behind the men’s. The top 20 male athletes in Forbes’ 2023 ranking, published in May, totaled $1.9 billion—more than eight times what the top 20 women earned.