Roger Federer made history, at the end of May, by topping the Forbes list of the highest–paid athletes in the world. The Swiss became the first tennis player to do so, in the 30 years history of this list. He came just second in 2013, after Tiger Woods.
With an estimated total pre-tax $106.3 million won between June 2019 and May 2020, the soon-to-be 39 years old player has overcome Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, with $105 million, respectively $104 million. While just $6.3 million came from the court, the rest of $100 million where deals with many partners, among them Mercedes-Benz or Credit Suisse. The biggest share comes from the Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo. Roger Federer signed a contract for 10 years with the clothes brand, in 2018, worth a staggering $300 million.
The Swiss is by far the best paid tennis player in the world. The next one in the Forbes list, Novak Djokovic, ranks only 23, with under $45 million, so less than half of Federer’s earnings.
Widely regarded as the best tennis player in history, Federer is the ninth athlete to land in the top spot since the Forbes top has been issued yearly, in 1990. That tells a lot about his career and about the fact he still features in the top of the ATP rankings – currently number 4.
The paydays for the highest-earning athletes dropped this year, but that is understandable if we look at all the big events canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first time since World War II when this happened.
And as everyone is waiting for the high class tennis to be back on the court and on the screens, the next big event may be the US Open Grand Slam, which could begin at the end of August. Roger Federer is the favorite number 5 of winning the US Open, with +800 odds at Unibet. He is overtaken by Novak Djokovic, who won four of the last seven Grand Slams played, with +150, Rafael Nadal (+400) and Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem (+700 each). Unibet offers ante–post, live, pre–match bets and also streams all events from major tennis championships with Unibet TV.
Tennis is so profitable that the only two female athletes on the Forbes 100 list are tennis players – Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams. Osaka earned in the past year $34 million from endorsements alone, while in her entire career the double Grand Slam winner made less than $15 million from tennis.
This shows the great share endorsements have in a successful athlete’s earnings. As mentioned before, Federer will receive $300 from one sponsor alone, while his entire career earnings from tennis are under $130 million. Just another two tennis players have reached the $100 million milestone in on-court earnings – Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Federer also has a foundation which helps educating children in Africa. More than $50 million have been raised by the foundation since its launch, in 2003.
The Swiss is not just the holder of many records in tennis, among them the most Grand Slam titles (20) and the most weeks as ATP’s no.1 (310), but he is also the highest-earning tennis player of all times, on and off court combined. Just in the 2010-2019 period he earned $640 million, which means almost $750 million form 2010 until today.
That is without including the previous at least 10 years in which he played tennis at the highest level. For example, in 2001 he reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon after defeating the then greatest tennis player, no.1 Pete Sampras, already 7 times Wimbledon winner at that time. By the end of 2009, Roger Federer had won 15 out of his 20 Grand Slam titles.
On the overall Forbes 100 Celebrities, Federer is third, after Kylie Jenner ($590 million) and Kanye West ($170 million).
For Roger Federal a new brand of tennis shoes was introduced with named
“Roger Pro Shoe”. That was specifically designed for Roger Federal feet
and not available for sale. But Good Tennis Shoes are
available from other famous brands like Nike, Adidas, Wilson, New
Balance etc.