Simona Halep is among world's highest paid female athletes (Forbes)

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep is among the world's highest paid female athletes of the past year, according to economic magazine Forbes, top of the list being American Serena Williams. Halep (aged 25) earned 6.2 million US dollars over June 2016-June 2017, over a half of this amount from the awards she won by playing in the WTA circuit and the rest from sponsorship agreements. "Simona Halep has been staying in the WTA's Top 10 for almost 200 weeks now. And this is the most active series in female tennis. The Romanian-born star sealed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with Mercedes Benz Romania. The most import such contract she has with Adidas," the Forbes journalists wrote about our country's representative.

The Forbes ranking is dominated by Serena Williams who, although she did not played for several months now, as she is pregnant with her first child, she still managed to collect 27 million US dollars over the past 12 months, more than double compared with second ranked Angelique Kerber (12.6 million).

The Top published by the US publication included eight tennis players, while only two athletes that have nothing to do with tennis are ranked among the top ten highest paid female athletes of the world, namely: race car driver Danica Patrick and martial art fighter Ronda Rousey, both from the United States. Russian Maria Sharapova, one of the highest paid female athletes worldwide is not to be found in the top ten, as she only collected 6 million US dollars over June 2016-June 2017, as a result of her doping suspension.

Here is the ranking of the highest paid female athletes as established by Forbes:

1. Serena Williams (US/ tennis) 27 million US dollars

2. Angelique Kerber (Germany/tennis) 12.6 million US dollars

3. Danica Patrick (US/car racing) 12.2 million US dollars

4. Ronda Rousey (US/mixed martial arts) 11 million US dollars

5. Venus Williams (US/tennis) 10.5 million US dollars

6. Garbine Muguruza (Spain/tennis) 7.7 million US dollars

7. Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark/tennis) 7.5 million US dollars

8 Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland/tennis) 7.3 million US dollars

9. Eugenie Bouchard (Canada/tennis) 7.1 million US dollars

10. Simona Halep (Romania/tennis) 6.2 million US dollars

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