On Saturday, September 7, Serena Williams faces Bianca Andreescu of Canada in the U.S. Open finals. If she wins her 24th Grand Slam singles title — at 37, against 19-year-old Andreescu — she will equal the accomplishments of Margaret Court, who has held the women’s record for decades. Williams was just 17 when she won her first Grand Slam, on that very same court.
Williams has not only notched major accomplishments in tennis, however, and her ventures and endorsements have made her an estimated $225 million net worth, according to Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women.
According to Forbes, in 2019 (they calculated to June), Williams made a total of $29.2 million, with $4.2 million coming from prize money and $25 million from endorsements.
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Williams and her sister, Venus, got started on the court early with their father, Richard, who homeschooled the two athletes so they could spend more time on the court. Turning pro at 14, Williams won her first match at a Grand Slam competition in 1998, at just 16. She went on to win the U.S. Open in 1999, which was her first Grand Slam singles win, and she and her sister also won the doubles tournament that year. Currently, U.S. Open singles winners net a purse of $3.8 million.
In 2002, she won Wimbledon, and since then has racked up an astonishing 23 Grand Slam wins, all of which have purses in the millions of dollars.
Like many athletes and celebs, Williams’ biggest earnings come from endorsement deals. In 2004, she signed a five-year, $40 million endorsement deal with Nike. She also has sponsorships with Gatorade, Beats Electronics, Aston Martin, Intel, Wilson, and more, for undisclosed amounts.
Williams has turned some of that money into other business opportunities. She and Venus bought stakes in the Miami Dolphins and the UFC. She also launched her own clothing line.
And how many homes does she own? “I don’t know, a lot,” Williams has said. According to The Sun, she owns a 6,000-square-foot home in Beverly Hills near Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears worth $5.6 million dollars, a $2.2 million dollar home in Florida’s Palm Beach Gardens that has its own spa, and a two-bedroom flat in Paris's seventh arrondissement with Eiffel Tower views, which she has shown off on Snapchat in the past. (The sale price on her flat wasn’t made public, but others in the area are priced in the millions.)
Her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, with whom she welcomed a daughter just over a year ago, brings wealth of his own to their marriage. In 2006, the website was reportedly sold for at least $10 million. In 2014, Ohanian rejoined the company as an executive chairman, and Reddit is now the third most-visited website in the US, valued at $3 billion, according to Business Insider.
Williams reportedly wants to play through at least next year but seems to be planning her next act with that clothing line, S by Serena, and aims to launch jewelry and beauty product lines soon. She has also built a venture portfolio worth more than $10 million.
Luckily for Williams, between the portfolio worth $10 million, the multiple homes worth roughly the same, and her numerous lucrative endorsement deals, her estimated net worth of $225 million should make retirement quite comfortable.
Luckily for Williams, between the portfolio worth $10 million, the multiple homes worth roughly the same, and her numerous lucrative endorsement deals, her estimated net worth of $225 million should make retirement quite comfortable.