CELEBRITY
Serena’s massive on-court earnings have no rival
Serena Williams enters her final U.S. Open as a long shot to take home the trophy but her title as the biggest earner in the history of women’s tennis will remain for many years to come.
Since turning professional in 1995, Williams has amassed a mind-boggling $94.6 million in prize money, more than twice as much as the second name on the list, which happens to be her older sister Venus, with $42.3 million.
“It’s hard to overstate her success,” Victor Matheson, a sports economist at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, said of the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
“There are few other examples of athletes in sport who are so far beyond the number two like that.”
Put another way, about 25,000 women have won prize money in the history of the WTA and Serena Williams has earned more than the bottom 80% of those players combined, he said.
“She has far and away the most career earnings among female athletes and is one of the very few female athletes to be solidly in the top 20 money earners among all athletes in a given year.
“It’s very unusual in sports to see a female athlete have this sort of financial presence.”
While it is difficult to quantify Williams’ financial impact on the sport as a whole, her career has coincided with huge growth in the women’s game.
In 1995, the WTA handed out $35 million in total prize money, an amount that jumped to $180 million in 2020, said Bob Dorfman, Sports Marketing Analyst at San Francisco’s Pinnacle Advertising.
But there is no doubt that Williams, who along with Venus was introduced to the predominately white sport at an early age by their father in Compton, California, helped bring in a new audience.
“It used to be very country clubby,” Dorfman said.
“Then she came along and it became accepted in public parks and people who never thought about playing tennis before started playing. And a lot more African American players came along.”
And as she turns her attention to growing her family and becoming a full-fledged business mogul, it is tough to see anyone replicating her on-court dominance anytime soon.
“There’s nobody on the horizon right now that’s going to come close to that,” Dorfman said.
“Hopefully somebody else will come along and dominate but nobody is doing it right now. I don’t think there’s anybody who has the drive and desire to win that Serena does.”
-Reuters
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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