For over a decade, Serena Williams’ $12.3 million single-season earnings stood as a monumental benchmark in tennis. In 2025, that record is no longer valid: a nearly 30% surge shattered it. The new high-water mark of $15 million is more than just a personal triumph for one of the tour’s biggest stars – Aryna Sabalenka. Step out of the box – the bigger point is tennis’ exponential financial growth.

In 2025, Aryna Sabalenka earned more than $15 million in WTA prize money alone. This new achievement puts Serena Williams’ all-time highest career earnings from a single season, $12.3 million, in second place. Remarkably, one-third of the $15 million prize money comes from Sabalenka’s US Open title run alone.

Among the highest paid female athletes of 2025 across all sports, the Belarusian ranks second, with tennis sweeping 70% of the leaderboard. Therefore, clearly establishing that tennis as a sport is still very much in the business.

With this, Sabalenka has amassed a total of $45.1 million in nine years through tennis alone. As a standalone figure, this is an impressive amount of money. But then, Serena Williams‘ total WTA prize money earnings come into the picture: $94.8m in the 15 years of tennis. By this standard, Sabalenka still has a long way to go.

Deep runs in every grand slam along with title victories at the Brisbane International, Miami Open, Madrid Open, and the US Open grew her wealth. By virtue of earnings from the 2025 season alone, Poland’s Iga Swiatek trails the Belarusian by $5 million. By the time we get to Elena Rybakina in the third spot, the difference between rankings based on prize money becomes less significant in numbers.

“I never focus on the money,” said the World No.1 candidly in an interview with tennis.com.

Then she clarified.

“I never focus on the money when I play the match… I mean, of course, when you win, you think, ‘Oh actually, I’ve got a good check,’ you know. But this is never crossing my mind during the match.”

Several checks like these make up the $15 million that made her a rich headline. It’s all possible only because of her love of the sport and the love of fighting. The grueling three setters and tiebreaks make tennis worthwhile for Aryna Sabalenka.

Amid pay parity debates, tennis honors women the most

Tennis is a sport that layers its players’ identities. A pro tennis player fights for survival on the court and for relevance off the court. That’s what defines a player. If you’re ranked low, and your game on the court is lackluster, it is a punishing sport. Tennis players fight on the court not just to win sets, but also to turn heads or catch some eyes. Take Coco Gauff, for example.

As per a recent list by Sportico of the highest paid women athletes of 2025, Coco Gauff takes the top spot with $31 million. Through the sport alone, her earnings for 2025 are $8 million, which includes a grand slam title from the French Open and a title run at the Wuhan Open. The remaining $23 million came from sponsorship deals and endorsing brands such as New Balance, Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Head, Bose, Baker Tilly and Fanatics, among others.

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Next on the list is Aryna Sabalenka, just a million shy of Coco Gauff. With $15 million from tennis and the other $15 million in endorsement deals with brands such as Nike, Wilson, Whoop and Audemars Piguet. The third spot also belongs to Iga Swiatek, with earnings up to $23.1 million ($10m in prize money and $13m in brand endorsements).

The point is – while the ascent of women in sports is rapid with women’s soccer, basketball, volleyball witnessing an infusion of funds and relevance among the audience, tennis, for a decade, has always been that sport that uplifts women. Yet, the tug-of-war between the governing bodies of the tour and the grand slam organizers for equality in the prize money for both genders is still never ending.

If it’s paradise, there will always be trouble. But for now, the 2025 tennis season has been quite rewarding for all the top WTA stars, even if the grind was cruel, don’t you think?