May 20, 2011
Tennis was the most represented sport in the 2011 Forbes’ Celebrity 100 List, which includes celebrated players Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams. The Forbes list ranks its members according to five factors: Money Rank, TV/Radio Rank, Press Rank, Web Rank and Social Rank. Of the 19 athletes who made the list, five are from tennis, four are from the NBA, three are from soccer, only one is from auto racing, and there are two each from golf, baseball, and the NFL.
According to Forbes, the 19 athletes on this year’s list earned a combined $647 million. The top athlete on the list, Tiger Woods, comes in at No. 6, behind celebrities Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, U2, and Elton John. The other athletes in the top 20 are LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.
At No. 25, Federer is the highest-ranked tennis player and fourth highest athlete on the list. The Swiss star comes in at No. 1 in the Press Rank, just ahead of Lady Gaga and Nadal. According to Forbes, Federer boasts the most impressive endorsement portfolio in all of sports—with 10 major deals that include Nike, Credit Suisse, Rolex, and Wilson—and was the only one of Gillette’s original three “Champions” to have his deal renewed this year, as Tiger Woods and Thierry Henry were dropped by the brand.
Nadal, who at No. 46 is the eighth highest athlete and only other tennis player in the top 50, has the No. 3 Press Rank. Forbes wrote, “Nadal’s endorsement portfolio has begun to catch up with his on-court success. This year he started shilling for Bacardi and Giorgio Armani in addition to holdovers like Nike, Babolat and Kia Motor. He earned $10.5 million in prize money over the last 12 months.”
Maria Sharapova is the top-ranked female athlete on the list, holding the No. 80 spot. According to Forbes, Sharapova remains the top-earning female athlete in the world, thanks to the renewal of her Nike deal at the start of 2010 and the royalties that she receives for “her own line of apparel which was up 26% last year, as well as for her ballet flat which was the top selling shoe in 2010 at Cole Haan, a Nike subsidiary.”
Serena Williams ranks at No. 84, as Forbes notes that her $33 million in career prize money is more than that of any other female athlete. At No. 86, Venus Williams claims her spot on the list for designing her own clothing line, Eleven, and selling it through the Gilte Groupe, in addition to boasting endorsement partners such as Wilson, Electronic Arts, Kraft, Ralph Lauren and Tide.
As a whole, the earnings power of the Celebrity 100 decreased slightly this year, at a collective $4.5 billion in 2011, down from $4.7 billion in 2010.
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