NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES -- Tennis players' incomes stand out among top-earning female athletes. In the 2020 highest-paid athletes list released online by U.S. business magazine Forbes, 22-year-old tennis player Naomi Osaka, who counts Nissin Food Products Co. among her endorsement deals, ranked 29th overall and was the top female athlete with a record 37.4 million dollars in earnings. U.S. tennis legend Serena Williams, in 33rd, was the only other woman in the top 100.
"Tennis remains the only route for women to rank alongside the top-paid male sports stars," wrote Forbes reporter Kurt Badenhausen.
The magazine began listing highest-paid athletes in 1990. Other than tennis players, no female athletes have ever made the list. In that inaugural year, Steffi Graf of Germany ranked 13th out of the top 30. Graf and Martina Hingis of Switzerland soon vied for the top spot among female athletes in the 1990s. The list expanded to 50 in 2010 and 100 in 2012, but since 2010, only two women have made the list besides Osaka and Williams: Maria Sharapova of Russia and Li Na of China.
The biggest feature of tennis is its Grand Slams: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Thanks to the efforts of Billie Jean King, the American tennis star and founder of the WTA (Women's Tennis Association), the prize money for the U.S. Open was made the same for men and women in 1973. Since 2007, it has been the same at all four Grand Slam tournaments. The winner of last year's U.S. Open made 3.85 million dollars, compared to 2.25 million dollars for the U.S. Open Championship golf tournament and 1 million dollar for the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament.
The high prize money stands out, but even bigger are endorsements. In the past year, Osaka earned 34 million dollars -- 10 times her winnings -- through endorsements.
TV cameras focus on individual tennis players for several hours, capturing logos on their outfits during the match and in interviews.
Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, has pointed out that tennis players' roller-coaster emotions during a match are tangible and spectators feel strong connections with the players, which makes for great advertising effects.
According to Forbes, more than half the fans at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last year were women. The percentage of those in attendance with at least a college degree was 78%, more than double the 35% of the U.S. as a whole, and had an average annual household income of 216,000 dollars. These are people who can afford the products offered by companies Osaka has endorsement deals with, such as Citizen Watch Co. and Nissan Motor Corp.
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