Serena Williams in 2015. Cara Owsley/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

The latest feather in tennis legend Serena Williams' cap

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Apr 23, 2025 12:15 PM ET

Even with all the strides made by women's sports, the gender pay gap is somehow widening.

The 2025 Sportico top 100 highest-paid athletes list did not include any women, with Coco Gauff missing out on the $37.5M cutoff to break into the top 100. Similarly, in 2024, no women made the top-100 list.

That wasn't the case when Serena Williams was running roughshod over the tennis world. The American icon made the top 50 list every year from 2010 to 2018 and remained in the top 100 in 2021 and 2022, despite entering very few tournaments.

One of a kind

We now have more evidence that crowns Williams as a true oddity in a male-dominating sporting world.

Sportico's new list of the 50 highest-paid athletes of all time has Williams standing tall as the sole woman, coming in at No. 40 ahead of legends such as Kevin Garnett, Evander Holyfield and Andre Agassi.

50 highest-paid athletes all-time via @Sportico:

▪️ Cutoff $570M (inflation-adjusted)
▪️ Athletes from 8 sports, 16 countries
▪️ 13 NBA, 8 golf
▪️ Serena Williams only woman in top 50

Full list: https://t.co/sKKWpTxGL2 pic.twitter.com/GbqaXVMzkK
— Kurt Badenhausen (@kbadenhausen) April 22, 2025

Remarkably, Williams continues to break barriers even years into her retirement. As noted by Sportico's Kurt Badenhausen, top-level female athletes haven't cracked the top-100 lists in recent years, lending more credence to Williams' career peak a decade ago.

Eventually, the likes of Gauff, Iga Swiatek, Aitana Bonmati, Caitlin Clark, Eileen Gu and Nelly Korda will break into the annual top-100 lists. But it's hard to foresee them reaching Williams' heights anytime soon.

As for the tennis world, the sport is still trying to fill the void left by Williams. Gauff and Swiatek have burst onto the scene in recent years, but neither has truly captured the imagination of fans, let alone racked up enough hardware to merit more adulation.

The all-time Sportico list is the latest reminder of why Williams is undoubtedly the GOAT of women's sports — both on and off the court.

The list, which encompassed career salary, purses, endorsements, etc., was topped by Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Cristiano Ronaldo, with LeBron James and Lionel Messi rounding off the top five.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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