5 Women Tennis players with the Highest Career Prize Money Earnings
Since the early 2000s, prize money for women professionals in Tennis has been on the ascendancy although there is still a significant gap between what the top male players earn vis-a-vis the earnings of the top women players. In 1973, the US Open became the very first Grand Slam to award the same prize money to both men and women.
This was followed by the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon restoring parity in 2001, 2006 and 2007 respectively. Despite the pay parity in Grand Slams, men earn money at ATP level tournaments compared to women professionals competing in the WTA events.
According to Daniel Levitt of The Guardian, 71% of the world's top 100 men in the ATP rankings have earned more than women of the same ranking, on the basis of prize money per tournament played in the year 2018 so far.
No woman till-date has breached the 100 million dollar mark in career prize money. We take a look at the top-5 earners in women's Tennis.
#5 Victoria Azarenka
The Belarusian former World Number 1 who turned pro in 2003 has won the Australian Open twice and has won a total of 20 WTA Singles' titles including a joint second highest nine hard court titles. Victoria 'Vika' Azarenka has a career-prize money of $29,257,979 till date.
#4 Caroline Wozniacki
The current World number 2, Caroline Wozniacki rose to prominence in 2009 while still in her teens. She finished 2010 and 2011 on top of the rankings but failed to breakthrough at the Grand Slam level. She broke her barren spell at the Grand Slams when she clinched the 2018 Australian Open and re-claiming the World Number 1 ranking after a gap of 7 years. The Dane who is married to retired American basketball player David Lee has a career-prize money of $30,973,173.