NEW YORK: Roger Federer has not won a Grand Slam title this year but the 17-time Grand Slam champion topped Forbes magazine’s list of the 10 top tennis moneymakers.
The Swiss star made $56.2m (42.6m euros) from July of last year through this past June, with endorsement deals from such firms as Rolex and Nike bringing the lion’s share of that total, more than $40m (30m euros).
At age 33, Federer owns three titles in 2014 and was a Wimbledon runner-up, dropping the final in five sets to top-ranked Novak Djokovic.
Five men and five women made this year’s list. Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who won his ninth French Open crown this past June, ranked second on the list at $44.5 m (33.7m euros) but was on the sidelines as the US Open began in New York because of a wrist injury.
Nadal had $30m (22.7m euros) in sponsor money. Serbia’s Djokovic was third with $33.1m (25m euros) that included $12.1m (9.1m euros) in prize money.
Russian beauty Maria Sharapova was fourth overall but topped the women on the list with $24.4m (18.5m euros), $22m (16.6m euros) of it from endorsements.
China’s Li Na, who won her second Grand Slam title in January at the Australian Open, was fifth on $23.6m with $18min endorsement income.
She is absent from the US Open with a knee injury. World number one Serena Williams ranked sixth on the money list with $22m, half from prize money.
Britain’s Andy Murray, whose earnings jumped more than $4m after he became the first British man to win the Wimbledon crown since 1936 last year, ranked seventh on $19.1m (14.4m in euros), with $15m (11.3m euros) of that from endorsements.
With his Adidas contract expiring this year, a lucrative new deal with adidas or Nike could raise his total next year no matter how he fares at this year’s US Open.
Victoria Azarenka was eighth at $11.1m (8.4m euros), with $7.5m (5.6m euros) from endorsements, with Japan’s Kei Nishikori ninth on $11m, 8.3m euros) that included $9m (6.8m euros) in sponsorship deals and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki 10th on $10.8m (8.1m euros), $9.5m (7.2m euros)of that from the endorsements.
Meanwhile, Argentine authorities have opened an investigation into the financial affairs of tennis star Juan Martin del Potro, who is suspected of tax evasion, officials said on Monday.
Local press reported that the case against del Potro, ranked 13 in the world, involved prize money from 2010, the year after he won the US Open.
“It is true that an investigation over tax evasion has been opened against del Potro,” a judicial source said on condition of anonymity.
AFP
