{"id":9834,"date":"2011-08-02T03:08:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T03:08:21","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-08-02T03:08:21","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T03:08:21","slug":"Li-Na-Nears-Top-Earner-with-42-Million-in-endorsements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=9834","title":{"rendered":"Li Na Nears Top Earner with $42 Million in endorsements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Li Na, the first Chinese player to win a major tennis title, is set to become the world\u2019s second- highest earning female athlete after signing endorsement contracts worth at least $42 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 29-year-old, who became Asia\u2019s first Grand Slam singles champion at the French Open in June, has since signed seven deals<\/strong> worth between $2 million and $3.5 million each annually, her agent Max Eisenbud said in an interview. All seven contracts are for a period of three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could do five more endorsement deals but she just doesn\u2019t have the time,\u201d<\/strong> said Eisenbud, a vice president at Coral Gables, Florida-based IMG Tennis who signed Li in November 2009. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The endorsements may make Li the second-highest earning female athlete in the world<\/strong>, behind former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova. The Russian, who is also represented by Eisenbud, makes about $24 million a year from prize money and endorsements, according to Forbes.<\/p>\n

Li, who has won $3.1 million in prize money so far this season, became the first Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final at January\u2019s Australian Open.<\/strong> Her success has made her a household name in the world\u2019s fastest-growing major economy.<\/p>\n

While Chinese women had won Olympic gold medals and Grand Slam titles in doubles, Li broke their singles drought when she defeated Italy\u2019s Francesca Schiavone in Paris. <\/strong>Her victory was watched by 116 million viewers in China, according to the WTA Tour, which runs the elite women\u2019s circuit.<\/p>\n

To see all of Li Na’s endorsements, click here.<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Li Na, the first Chinese player to win a major tennis title, is set to become the world\u2019s second- highest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":914,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Gerry","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dced5247c785a35531cefaa537a22267219a283257394cd62377f4e1af43b4dc?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"3","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Li Na, the first Chinese player to win a major tennis title, is set to become the world\u2019s second- highest","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":180,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Gerry","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=914"},"magazine_blocks_comment":3,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dced5247c785a35531cefaa537a22267219a283257394cd62377f4e1af43b4dc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}