10 American Richest Athletes

Tiger Woods adultery scandal paid off! Many big sponsors like AT&T, Accenture LLP, and Gatorade left him. Unfortunately, this was not yet moved him from the top of the American richest athletes list. However, he has a significant dropped income since my last post about World's Richest Athletes.

Recently, Sports Illustrated released a list of the 50 top-earning American athletes by salary, winnings, endorsements and appearance fees. They called their compilation list as "2010 Fortunate 50". These are the top 10 of U.S. richest athletes:

1. Tiger Woods/golf ($20,508,163 salary/winnings; $70,000,000 endorsements, $90,508,163 total)


2. Phil Mickelson/golf ($9,660,757; $52,000,000; $61,660,757)
3. Floyd Mayweather Jr./boxing ($60,000,000; $250,000; $60,250,000)
4. LeBron James/NBA basketball ($15,779,912; $30,000,000; $45,779,912)
5. Alex Rodriguez/MLB baseball ($33,000,000; $4,000,000; $37,000,000)
6. Shaquille O'Neal/NBA basketball ($21,000,000; $15,000,000; $36,000,000)
7. Kobe Bryant/NBA basketball ($23,034,375; $10,000,000; $33,034,375)
8. Derek Jeter/MLB baseball ($21,000,000; $10,000,000; $31,000,000)
9. Peyton Menning/NFL football ($15,800,000; $15,000,000; $30,800,000)
10. Dwayne Wade/NBA basketball ($15,779,912; $12,000,000; $27,779,912)

For the complete list of the fortunate 50, visit Sports Illustrated website.

Besides American richest athletes, SI also compiled the list of 20 world's richest athletes, as follow:


1. Roger Federer (Switzerland/tennis) $61,768,110


2. Lionel Messi (Argentina/soccer) $44,000,000
3. David Beckham (England/soccer) $40,500,000
4. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/soccer) $40,000,000
5. Manny Pacquiao (Philipphines/boxing) $38,000,000
6. Ichiro Suzuki (Japan/baseball) $37,000,000
7. Valentino Rossi (Italy/MotoGP racing) $35,000,000
8. Yao Ming (China/basketball) $34,378,325
9. Rafael Nadal (Spain/tennis) $27,466,515
10. Lewis Hamilton (England/F1 racing) $26,700,000

For the complete list of 20 world's reichest athletes, visit Sports Illustrated website.

From the list we can take a conclusion, although two golfers were at the top of the list, actually only those two that were in the list. In America, 15 fortunate athletes came from NFL, while 16 from NBA. From the world's list, football/soccer still dominated as world's no. 1 sport with 7 players on the top rank, although a tennis player, Roger Federer, was on the top place.

Apparently, the highest salary/winning prizes in sport still held by boxing, followed by soccer and racing. But famous figures from other sports can be on top list because their endorsements/marketing were high, because they are having a high-selling personality, both in good or bad terms.

One more thing, the only woman athlete in those list is Maria Sharapova (Russia/tennis) with annual income of $19,923,619, put her in 20th rank of world's richest.

Inside and Outside The Match: Tennis Players

When in the match, athletes can be look so strong, determined, focused, sometime even scary. But they seem to have a completely different personality outside the field. That's why I add a new category, athlete's galleries, in which we can see their appearance in daily life.

For the first post, I post galleries of tennis players, both men and women. As we know, tennis is a sport which produces tons of beautiful athletes, some of them even categorized as a model. Just check their pics below:

1. Maria Sharapova (Russia)



Former number one player for several times, and already won three grand slam titles. Currently 23-year-old this month, she still has a lot of chances of adding her titles.


2. Sania Mirza (India)



Mirza is one of the most famous Indian athletes in the world. She’s only won one event, but has played well in her career, achieving a ranking high of 27th (2007). Distracted by her personal life, her current rank is 90 (April 2010), but in her 24th age she still has a long way to go.


3. Rafael Nadal (Spain)



Series of injuries made Nadal's rank dropped from top to 3rd place. With 6 grand slam titles and Olympic gold medal, he now seeks an opportunity to rise again to face his rivals.


4. Ana Ivanovic (Serbia)



Ana Ivanovic is the 2008 French Open winner, and one of the top players in the world. She’s also considered as the hottest current female player in tennis, after Anna Kournikova retired.


5. Andy Murray (Great Britain)



Britain's biggest hope to win a grand slam title after more than three decades, Murray still struggling to defeat his trauma after defeated in two grand slam's finals. With 22 year of age and current rank at no.4, it's just a matter of time.


6. Tatiana Golovin (France)



Born in Russia but have French citizenship, Golovin reached her personal career best ranking of 12th in 2008. She has two career titles and has made fairly deep runs into all four of the Grand Slam events at various times. She is dating Arsenal midfielder, Samir Nasri, at this moment.


7. Roger Federer (Switzerland)



Nuff said' about this one. Born to be legend, might be the best tennis player ever. Federer has won 16 Grand Slam singles titles, more than any other male player. Considering his age (28-year-old) Fed Ex won't retired soon, pity for his rivals...


8. Elena Dementieva (Russia)



Another Russian babes of tennis (why're they so hot and talented in this sport??), Dementieva is 2008 gold medal winner in Beijing. She is currently the fourth ranked player in the world. She’s yet to win a Grand Slam, but has reached the finals of the US Open and French.

Roger Federer Married His Girlfriend

Roger Federer married his fiancee Mirka Vavrinec in his home town of Basel, Switzerland on Saturday April 11, 2009, he announced on his website, saying the couple got married "surrounded by a small group of close friends and family".

"It was a beautiful spring day and an incredibly joyous occasion," he said. The couple announced last month they are expecting their first child.

Miroslava "Mirka" Vavrinec is a former Women's Tennis Association player. They met while competing for Switzerland in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Vavrinec retired from the tour in 2002 because of a persistent foot injury and has since been working as Federer's public relations manager.

After struggling with his form last year and losing his No 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal, Federer is aiming for his sixth Wimbledon title this summer. He lost to Nadal in the Australian Open final, the year's first major.