Los Angeles: Two days after her stunning loss to Garbine Muguruza in the French Open final, Serena Williams scored a different win on Monday, when Forbes Magazine reported she has overtaken Maria Sharapova as the world’s highest-paid sportswoman.
Williams earned $28.9 million (Dh106.15 million) over the past 12 months, the financial magazine reported in an article posted on its website.
Russian tennis star Sharapova had held the title for the past 11 years.
Williams, 34, has dominated her sport for more than a decade. She won her second Grand Slam in 2002 before going on to win 19 more since then.
After falling at Roland Garros on Saturday, she vowed to keep trying to equal Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam titles.
Williams’s career prize money of $77.6 million amounts to more than twice as much as any other sportswoman’s.
However, Sharapova dominated in endorsement profits before companies including Nike, American Express, Porsche and TAG Heuer distanced themselves after she tested positive for the recently banned drug meldonium earlier this year. Sharapova earned $21.9 million over the past 12 months, down almost $8 million from the previous year, Forbes said.
American mixed martial arts star Ronda Rousey was third on the list with $14 million, just ahead of NASCAR stock car driver Danica Patrick, who earned $13.9 million.
German tennis legend Boris Becker, meanwhile, said he considers himself a better coach than player after overseeing Novak Djokovic’s victory in the French Open.
“I have to admit that I am now better as a coach than a player,” said the 48-year-old Becker, who won six Grand Slams [2 Australian Opens, 1 US Open and 3 Wimbledon titles] during his playing career.
The 29-year-old Djokovic, who took Becker on as a coach for the 2014 season, captured his first French Open on Sunday to become only the eighth man to complete a career Grand Slam.
More impressively, he is just the third man to hold all four majors at the same time and the first since Rod Laver back in 1969. That is something even his eternal rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have failed to achieve.
