Rafael Nadal, Emma Raducanu, and Naomi Osaka are proving that earning a lot by tennis doesn't necessarily mean winning a lot of matches.
Like every year, Forbes released their list of the highest-paid tennis players in 2023, which was topped by Novak Djokovic this year, who was closely followed by Carlos Alcaraz, and also WTA's No. 1, Iga Swiatek.
All three of them earned at least eight million U.S. dollars on the tennis court, but there are some players that could count their prize money for the past 12 months in thousands, yet their overall earning still surpassed multiple millions.
Once a titan on the tennis court, Nadal, due to his injury hiatus, made a relatively modest $1.5 million in prize money. He began his recovery process to return to competition on the ATP Tour in 2024, but despite being away from the tennis courts, he managed to earn a lot compared to some other players.
His iconic status in the tennis world, paired with a magnetic personal brand, secured him a staggering $14 million in endorsements, placing him fifth on the list with $15.5 million earned in total. It underlines a crucial point: legacy and personal brand can often outweigh immediate on-court success.
And this is even more evident when we glance at British sensation Emma Raducanu and former WTA No. 1 Naomi Osaka. Both players are currently on a hiatus. While their on-court earnings stand at a humble $0.3 million and $0.1 million, respectively, they’ve both bagged eight-figure sums from endorsements.
Such staggering numbers point towards an evolving landscape where players’ marketability, combined with their unique stories and personalities, resonates deeply with brands and audiences.
Raducanu, who, like Nadal, recently returned to practice after a surgery, earned only around $300,000 in prize money, but her off-court activities amounted to a staggering $15 million, meaning that the 20-year-old Brit placed sixth only $200,000 behind the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
Osaka's story is similar, as the Japanese player, who gave birth to her first child only a few weeks ago, earned only around $100,000 in prize money, but her off-court activities made sure that Osaka placed ninth on the list with $12.1 million in total, out of which $12 million is from off-court activities.
This only proves that the highest-earning tennis players in the world are not necessarily those who currently play the best but also those who managed to build the best personal brand. Yet, it's important to say that for any of these players, it wouldn't be possible to build a strong brand without their previous success on the tennis court.
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