Coco Gauff has become the highest-paid female athlete in the world, according to the latest Forbes Tennis Rich List, with four women in the top seven over the last 12 months
00:01 ET, 23 Aug 2025Updated 00:01 ET, 23 Aug 2025
Coco Gauff is earning a serious amount of money(Image: Robert Prange, Getty Images)
Coco Gauff, the world’s highest-paid female athlete, is now out-earning Novak Djokovic, according to the latest Forbes Tennis Rich List.
With four women in the top seven earners over the past 12 months, the list comes just before the US Open kicks off this weekend. Carlos Alcaraz holds onto his title as the world’s best-paid tennis player, raking in an estimated $48.3M over the past year before taxes and agent fees.
However, his biggest on-court rival, Jannik Sinner, has narrowed the gap after the Wimbledon champion’s earnings increased by $26.6M to $47.3M.
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Interestingly, the Italian won more money on court ($20.3M) than the Spaniard ($13.3M) this year.
French Open champion Gauff ranks third – and is the top woman at only 21 years old – with $37M, including $25M from off-court earnings.
The American sensation has lucrative sponsorship deals with Bose and New Balance and has invested in the women’s professional three-on-three basketball league Unrivaled.
Despite Djokovic’s impressive career on-court earnings of $188,934,053, the Serbian superstar falls to fourth place behind Gauff this year, having won only $4.6M.
Novak Djokovic has fallen below Coco Gauff on the Forbes Rich List(Image: Getty)
Aryna Sabalenka, Qinwen Zheng, and Iga Swiatek also make it into the top seven, with the top ten male and female players combined earning a total of $285M between them.
This figure is a drop from the $343M set in 2020 when tennis legends Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, and Serena Williams earned $106.3M, $40M, and $36M respectively.
According to Forbes, Federer has joined the exclusive billionaire club, becoming only the seventh athlete to do so, thanks to a significant increase in the value of his minority stake in Swiss footwear and apparel brand On.
The other members of this elite group are soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, NBA player LeBron James, golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, and boxing champion Floyd Mayweather.
British tennis sensation Emma Raducanu tied for sixth place among female athletes on the Forbes list last year with earnings of $12.9M – the same as Naomi Osaka. This included $12M in endorsements for the British No. 1 through sponsorship deals with major brands such as Nike, Christian Dior, Tiffany & Co, and Porsche. So far this year, World No. 35 Raducanu has earned $1.1M on court.