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by Bobby Chintapalli, TW Contributing Editor
The Six Million Dollar Woman
Let’s start with Serena Williams, because how can we not? This year you can’t say much about women’s tennis — and hardly anything about money in women’s tennis — without uttering her name.
She broke the career prize money record held by Lindsay Davenport, earning a career total of more than $28.5 million. The figure transcends tennis; a WTA press release says she’s “the first professional female athlete to earn more than $23 million in a single professional sports league”. Then she broke the single-season prize money record set by Justine Henin two years ago by earning $6,545,586 this year. Not bad for a year’s work.
Mine the Data, Mind the Gap
Now if you’re following news on Iraq and healthcare reform, a figure in the millions may not register. You may need to hear the B word (billion) to listen and the T word (trillion) to really care. But since we’re folks who stare at GOATs, consider that, as of November 16, that was more than the prize money earned by Roger Federer (and every other male tennis player). Also consider Serena’s prize money in the context of the top 100 players.
Serena earned more prize money than the bottom third of players — combined.
If we were talking about GDP Serena would be the European Union, while many other players would be Kiribati, Vanuatu and various island nations we’ve never heard of and can’t pronounce. There’s no reason to blab about this to Anna Chakvetadze, Kimiko Date Krumm, Klara Zakopalova and the 30 other women on the unhappy end of that stat, but it’s true.
For top 100 players aspiring below the Serena stratosphere, even a cool mill isn’t a given. Only a dozen women earned more than $1 million in total prize money.
- Serena Williams – $6,545,586
- Dinara Safina – $4,310,218
- Svetlana Kuznetsova – $3,658,841
- Venus Williams – $3,126,894
- Jelena Jankovic – $2,491,514
- Caroline Wozniacki – $2,371,550
- Elena Dementieva – $2,343,481
- Victoria Azarenka – $2,115,536
- Vera Zvonareva – $1,642,145
- Kim Clijsters – $1,632,560
- Agnieszka Radwanska – $1,614,464
- Samantha Stosur – $1,179,681
These women represent the top 10 and two others. One is 13th-ranked Samantha Stosur, who surprisingly won only her first singles title this year. (Oh, and feel free to call her ‘Samoid’, which the WTA website lists as a nickname.) The other is 18th-ranked Kim Clijsters, who decided to test the tennis comeback waters the usual way, by winning a Grand Slam.
Of Moolah and Math
This year not only did Clijsters become just the third player ever to beat Serena in a Grand Slam semifinal (the others are Venus Williams and a certain compatriot of Clijsters), she also outdid Serena in at least one money stat — average singles prize money earned per tournament played. Clijsters played only four tournaments — Amelie Mauresmo, who played the lowest number after Clijsters, played 14 — but one of the tournaments just happened to be a Grand Slam, and you know the rest.
Only a half dozen players earned more than six figures in average singles prize money per tournament played:
- Kim Clijsters – $407,538
- Serena Williams – $310,247
- Dinara Safina – $189,543
- Svetlana Kuznetsova – $172,677
- Venus Williams – $131,809
- Victoria Azarenka – $107,516
The list contains names you expect. There are Grand Slam winners, former Number 1s. . .and Victoria Azarenka. Surprised about that last part? As whimsical as it may seem, this stat conveys quantitatively and forcefully what many of us sense when we see Azarenka play her best tennis, controlling points and especially her emotions: She’s destined for big things, and in tennis that means Grand Slams (ask Serena Williams) and rankings (ask Jelena Jankovic).
!92554014 Perhaps also unexpected is the absence of top five players Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Dementieva. You have to think Wozniacki will make this list next year if she continues to play great defense, continues to improve her offense and plays fewer tournaments, which she’ll have to do as a top 10 player. It would be nice to see Dementieva make the list too — I admit I have a soft spot for her. She has the fitness level and ferocious ground strokes plus some; what she doesn’t have is the amount of time teenage Wozniacki has. (Next year Wozniacki will be in the first year of her 20s, and Dementieva will be in the last year of hers.)
This is just one measure, and evaluating players by money may sound crass. If they don’t approach the top of this list though it means, for one thing, that they didn’t do well enough when it mattered — at the Grand Slams. (Note that all three of this year’s Grand Slam winners are on here.) Money talks, and this is what it says.
Double Down
Of the top 100 singles players, the Williams sisters top the list for doubles prize money earnings. Could that have anything to do with them winning three Grand Slams this year? Hmmm...
They’re followed on the list by more traditional doubles players — Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Anabel Medina Garrigues and Samoid Stosur. The only other top 10 player close to the top of the doubles prize money list? Victoria Azarenka.
Just sayin’. . .
It would be surprising if Wozniacki didn’t also make it near the top next year, partly because she’ll be partnering with Medina Garrigues.
Interestingly, all but four of the top 100 singles players earned some prize money for women’s and/or mixed doubles. Those who didn’t are Marion Bartoli, Na Li, Karolina Sprem and a player who won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with Jamie Murray two years ago — Jelena Jankovic. Leave it to JJ to always keep us guessing.