Swiss tennis great Roger Federer is the world's highest-paid athlete

ZURICH: Swiss tennis great Roger Federer has become the first from his sport to top Forbes' list of highest paid athletes. With an estimated $106.3 million earned over the past 12 months, Federer edged out Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo from the top spot.

The factors that went into Forbes' calculation were athletes' revenue, including prize money, salaries, contract bonuses, endorsements, royalties, and appearance fees from June 1, 2019, until June 1, 2020.

A key factor that went into Federer edging out the football stars was that the latter had to take heavy salary cuts during the coronavirus pandemic. The 38-year-old Swiss is just the ninth athlete to take top sport since it was first done in 1990. He is the first tennis player in those 30 years to finish No 1, too.

The three athletes immediately below Federer are all football players with Ronaldo on second with estimated earnings of $105 million. His arch rival and Argentine great Lionel Messi is third with an estimated $104 million while Brazil's Neymar comes fourth with $95.5 million.

NBA stars came next in the list with Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James earning $88.2 million, Golden State Warriors all-star Stephen Curry with $74.4 million, Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant with an estimated $63.9 million.

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka is the highest paid female athlete with $37.4 million. She however comes only 29th in the overall rankings. US tennis great Serena Williams comes 33rd with $36 million.

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury is the highest earning British athlete, according to the list, narrowly edging out Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, who ranks 13th, two places below Fury.

Fury has returned to the top of the sport of boxing and now holds one of the prestigious heavyweight belts having beaten Deontay Wilder, who ranks 20th on the list, in February by knockout to take the prize belt.

In terms of other athletes from the UK and Ireland, Rory McIlroy (14th), Conor McGregor (16th) and Anthony Joshua (19th) all feature inside the top 20. Agencies