Swiatek surpasses Venus Williams for No. 2 on all-time prize money list
With every passing week, it seems, Iga Swiatek makes history and continues her ascension up the Hologic WTA Tour record books.
Her latest achievement? Surpassing Venus Williams for second all-time in career prize money.
On the heels of a rather robust Asian swing schedule -- she won the title in Seoul, the 25th of her career, and then played Beijing and Wuhan -- the six-time Grand Slam champion is now up to $42,945,490, slightly above Williams' $42,867,364.
With three titles, including her first-ever Wimbledon trophy, and 61 wins (the most on tour this season), the 24-year-old has earned $9,417,532 this year alone. That's second to only World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who has made $12,313,519 in the top spot.
Sabalenka is No. 4 on the all-time list ($42,480,621), and trails Swiatek by just $464,869.
The all-time leader in prize money is 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams, who racked up an astonishing $94,816,730 during her illustrious 27-year career (made all the more incredible by the fact that prize money was substantially less for much of her career).
Rounding out the Top 10 -- after Serena, Venus, Swiatek and Sabalenka -- is Simona Halep (just over $40 million), Victoria Azarenka ($38.8 million), recently-inducted International Tennis Hall of Famer Maria Sharapova ($38.7 million), recently-retired Petra Kvitova ($37.6 million), Caroline Wozniacki ($36.4 million) and Angelique Kerber ($32.5 million).
Other active players in the all-time Top 20 include Coco Gauff (11th, with $29 million), Elina Svitolina (13th, with $26.6 million), Karolina Pliskova (14th, with $26.1 million) and Naomi Osaka (18th, with $24.5 million).
Swiatek and Sabalenka will have an opportunity to win another major title -- and increase their prize money total -- at next month's WTA Finals in Riyadh, where $15.5 million will be on the line.
Gauff has also qualified for the year-end event, and the trio will be joined by Australian Open champion Madison Keys, US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova and Jessica Pegula. The final two spots in the eight-player tournament are still up for grabs in the final weeks of the season.