Coco Gauff Named World's Highest Paid Female Athlete for Third Straight Year

Eight of the top-10 highest-paid female athletes this year are tennis players.
Coco Gauff was the highest-paid female athlete for the third year in a row.
Coco Gauff was the highest-paid female athlete for the third year in a row. / Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

For the third straight year, tennis superstar Coco Gauff was named the highest-paid female athlete, Forbes announced on Tuesday in their annual list for 2025.

At age 21, Gauff earned a total of $33 million this past year from $8 million in winnings on the court and $25 million from endorsements off the court. Winning the French Open in May definitely helped increase her annual earnings this year.

This is a slight decrease from Gauff’s earnings in 2024, which was estimated to be $34.4 million. This amount pushed Gauff above a major milestone, she became just the third woman to ever hit a $30 million income in a single calendar year behind fellow tennis stars Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. In 2023, Gauff led the list with $22.7 million.

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Tennis stars were the three highest-paid female athletes in 2025 as Aryna Sabalenka earned $30 million (making her the fourth woman to hit this mark) this season, splitting $15 million from her tennis appearances and $15 million from endorsements. After Sabalenka is Iga Świątek, who earned $25.1 million combined this year.

Eight of the 10 highest-paid female athletes are tennis players this year. Apart from Gauff, Sabalenka and Świątek, stars like Qinwen Zheng (No. 5, $22.6 million), Madison Keys (No. 6, $13.4 million), Osaka (No. 8, $12.5 million), Elena Rybakina (No. 8, $12.5 million) and Jessica Pegula (No. 10, $12.3 million).

Here’s the full list of the 20 female athletes named this year.

Athlete

Sport

Combined Earnings

Coco Gauff

Tennis

$33 million

Aryna Sabalenka

Tennis

$30 million

Iga Swiatek

Tennis

$25.1 million

Eileen Gu

Skiing

$23.1 million

Qinwen Zheng

Tennis

$22.6 million

Madison Keys

Tennis

$13.4 million

Nelly Korda

Golf

$13 million

Naomi Osaka

Tennis

$12.5 million

Elena Rybakina

Tennis

$12.5 million

Jessica Pegula

Tennis

$12.3 million

Caitlin Clark

WNBA

$12.1 million

Amanda Anisimova

Tennis

$11.3 million

Sabrina Ionescu

WNBA

$10.5 million

Jeeno Thitikul

Golf

$10.3 million

Angel Reese

WNBA

$9.4 million

Paige Bueckers

WNBA

$9.1 million

Jasmine Paolini

Tennis

$8.3 million

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Track and Field

$8.2 million

Lindsey Vonn

Skiing

$8.2 million

Ilona Maher

Rugby

$8.1 million


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.