Serena Williams’ Net Worth
She is 41 years old and is considered the best female player in the history of tennis. She has the most Grand Slam titles, 23, more than any woman or man in the current era of professional tennis, and has been world No. 1 8 times in 15 years. The sixth time she stayed at No. 1 for 186 weeks, equaling the record held by Steffi Graf. In total, she held the #1 spot for 319 weeks. The list of Serena Williams’ tennis records and achievements alone would take up the space for an entire article.
What is Serena Williams’ net worth?
The world champion professional tennis player, Serena Williams, has a net worth of $250 million at the time this article is written. Serena is the highest-earning female tennis player by a mile and is considered one of the best female tennis players in history.
Serena Williams makes anywhere between $30 million and $40 million per year from endorsements and on-court earnings. For instance, between June 2019 and June 2020 she made $35 million and almost $20 million was from endorsements.
Serena Williams is the player with the most money earned exclusively from tennis, $94 million. She is closely followed by her sister, Venus, with $42 million.
Childhood and teenage years
Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981, in a family that loved tennis with all its pores. Both Serena’s mother and father are tennis coaches, so this sport was by no means an accident in her life. She is the youngest of 5 sisters, 3 from her mother’s first marriage and Venus, from the same relationship. However, she has at least 7 brothers from her father’s side.
Serena started playing tennis at the age of 4 under the guidance of her parents, but 5 years later the whole family moved to Florida so that Serena and Venus could enter Rick Macci’s tennis academy, which provided additional training to the preparation which they already received from their parents. When Serena was 14, her father decided to withdraw her and her sister from the academy and train them alone.
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Serena’s parents wanted her to enter the circuit only after the age of 16, and that’s exactly what happened. In the first 3 tournaments, she lost in the qualifying matches, but in the next one, she showed a little of what was to come. Ranked at that time in the 304th place, Serena managed to defeat Mary Pierce and Monica Seles, who were then ranked 7th and 4th, respectively. She thus became the player with the lowest place in the ranking who defeated 2 players from the top 10 in one tournament. She then lost in the semifinals to the 5th-ranked Lindsay Davenport, but at the end of the year, she was already ranked 99th in the WTA.
Career
The year 1998 did not bring singles titles for Serena, but it did take her to 20th place in the ranking. She instead won 2 mixed doubles titles with Max Mirnyi, at Wimbledon and the US Open, and another 3 doubles titles with her sister, Venus. A year later came the first title of her career, in Paris, at the Open Gaz de France. On the same day, Venus won another tournament, in Memphis, thus the two becoming the first sisters to win a professional tournament in the same week. In March, she entered the WTA top 10 for the first time, and throughout the year she defeated the biggest names of the moment.
The years 2000-2001 were successful, but also came with many injuries for Serena. After another injury at the beginning of 2002, nothing seemed to be able to stop her from the road to WTA number 1. In Miami, she entered the very short list of players who managed to defeat, in a single tournament, the holders of the first 3 places in the ranking: Martina Hingis – number 3, Venus Williams – number 2, and Jennifer Capriati – number 1.
A long string of victories and records followed until the summer of 2003 when she had to undergo emergency knee surgery. She was forecasted to stay away from the field for 6 to 8 weeks. She was absent for 8 months. She returned to touring in March 2004 and her return was in style, straight to the title in Miami.
The start of 2007 was supposed to be a new beginning for Serena, but the pressure could have ended her career. The press, fans, sponsors, as well as herself, had monumental demands from her. Nike threatened her right at the beginning of the Australian Open that if she doesn’t show good form, they will end the contract with her. Serena, however, was neither going to be scared nor lose. She won the final against Maria Sharapova, and the press then described her game as the best of her entire career.
In the spring of 2011, Serena announced that she had suffered a pulmonary embolism and a hematoma, but that she was ready to return to the court after almost a year since the last tournament she had participated in. The beginning was not the best, but at the end of the year, she was ranked 12th in the WTA compared to 169, where she was when she returned to the circuit. Although 2012 started with another injury, it would be one of the best years of Serena’s career. She won almost every tournament she entered, including her 5th Wimbledon title, 4th US Open, 15th Grand Slam, and Olympic gold against Maria Sharapova, being named player of the year for the fourth time in WTA.
The beginning of 2017 brought new records for Serena: the seventh Australian Open title and the 23rd Grand Slam title, one more than the record previously held by the same Steffi Graf.
7 months later Serena gave birth to her first child, a girl.
The beginning of 2019 took her to 11th place in the WTA and to the first Grand Slam final after a long time, at Wimbledon. She lost to Simona Halep, but she broke another record – the oldest finalist at a Grand Slam.
In September 2022, Serena Williams played the last match of her career against Ajla Tomljanovic, in the third round of the US Open, where she lost the match, with the score of 5-7, 7-6, 1-6.
The dramas behind the successful image
But life is not limited to awards and success. And Serena’s life was far from easy. She had racist comments since childhood and grew up in a neighborhood constantly rocked by beatings and shootings.
It was not easy for her from a physical point of view either. In addition to repeated injuries, she faced terrible migraines throughout her adult life, which caused her many problems in important matches. Until recently, however, she considered that she could not complain about it and give up a match because of headaches. Only after she became a mother – when she was one step away from losing her life – did she realize the seriousness of the situation and asked for help. When her little girl was born, she had surgery twice in less than 30 hours and was not allowed to get out of bed for 6 weeks. And the risk of developing pulmonary embolism is still extremely high.
Other venues
Although we might think that sports and health issues take up all of her time, Serena Williams is truly a force. Since the early 2000s, Serena Williams has also tried her luck in the world of television. Thus, she appeared in various shows and lent his voice to various cartoon characters. She has written 2 books, “Venus & Serena: Serving From the Hip” and “On the Line”.
Businesses
In addition to her exemplary tennis career, Serena Williams has proven that she has good business sense as well. Thus, she launched a collection of sportswear with Puma and one with Nike, and in 2004 she launched her own fashion brand “Aneres”. Last but not least, she owns shares in the American football team Miami Dolphins.
Endorsements
In addition to the money earned from tennis, Serena Williams collected impressive sums from advertising contracts or sponsorship agreements for sporting goods. Partnerships with Nike, Beats by Dre, Piguet, Wilson, Subway, and Gatorade brought her around $350 million.
In 2021 alone, Serena Williams collected $45,9 million from advertising contracts, investments, and income with the help of her personal brand “S by Serena”.
Philanthropy
The athlete is also very involved in charity actions. She has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2011 and is involved with a host of other organizations such as Elton John AIDS Foundation, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Hearts of Gold, HollyRod Foundation, and more. She also opened The Serena Williams Foundation which helps build schools in Africa.
Personal life
She is married to the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian, and since she gave birth, him and the little girl have been accompanying her on tours all over the world.
5 tips from Serena Williams
“If you lose you get up, make it better, and try again!”
“I believe that in life you have to try to become better until the day you die.”
“I always believe that I can beat the best, that I can achieve the best. I always see myself as a leader.
“I don’t like to lose, no matter what. However, I learned much more from what I lost than what I gained.”
“You have to be fearless if you want to be successful.”
Final thoughts
Even though she will no longer play tennis, Serena Williams will still attract contracts on the conveyor belt, but she will also have more time to be involved with Serena Ventures. And financial experts are sure that the 41-year-old player will cross the billion-dollar barrier, thus becoming the first athlete to reach this milestone.
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