US magazine, Forbes, reports that the highest-paid female athletes come almost exclusively from tennis and golf, which offer higher levels of prize money and greater opportunities for endorsement.
Golfers Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie and Lorena Ochoa have all broken into eight-figure earnings territory, whilst the four highest-paid female athletes in the world are from the tennis circuit: Maria Sharapova (Russia), Serena and Venus Williams (US) and the recently retired Justine Henin (Belgium).
By contrast earnings for women’s basketball players and football players are still a long way behind the pay-levels of top-male stars LeBron James or David Beckham.
Industry consultant David Carter from strategic marketing company Sports Business Group, however, said that given the consistent, incremental growth of women's sports wages for female basketball and football players are likely to increase.
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