If you are a female athlete and you want to get rich, play golf or tennis. 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. Here is the list of the top ten highest paid women athletes:

Forbes has released its list of the Top-Earning Athletes of the Beijing Olympics. Roger Federer ranks at 4, whereas Maria Sharapova is No. 7.

Roger Federer

Estimated annual income: $35 million

Federer has racked up 12 Grand Slam titles and some $40 million in prize money alone since hitting the pro tour eight years ago. He has a 10-year deal with Nike, signed in 2007, is one of the longest commitments the company has ever done. Federer has also had his own cologne line since 2003. It’s still possible his tournament schedule could preclude his playing in Beijing.

Maria Sharapova

Estimated annual income: $26 million

There’s nothing like the combination of talent and sex appeal to turn yourself into a sports marketing juggernaut. Sharapova’s endorsement portfolio includes Sony, Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive, Nike and Motorola.

Marat Safin has confirmed his participation in St. Petersburg Open ATP tournament starting on October 20. Safin was the tournament winner in 2000, and 2001.

Sports Illustrated this week features Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer on its cover, calling their five-set Wimbledon final is “the greatest tennis match ever played,” and “a four-hour, 48-minute infomercial for everything right and virtuous about tennis….”

USTA has announced that they will no longer use former tennis pro Justin Gimelstob in their upcoming television ad campaign because of his sexist remarks on a radio program. “In the radio appearance, Gimelstob used a derogatory term to describe Anna Kournikova, a former tennis player, and made suggestive comments about current top-25 player Nicole Vaidisova.”

Kournikova plays for her sixth season of World Team Tennis, this time for the St. Louis Aces. She is scheduled to play the Newport Beach (California) Breakers on July 16, New York (Albany) Buzz on July 22 and Washington (D.C.) Kastles on July 23. (Src: Sports Illustrated)

I will be calling Luxembourg home for the next couple of years. Sorry for not posting. I was in the process of moving from the U.S. to Luxembourg. It has been a hectic process. Everything is so much more bureaucratic here compared to the U.S. I know, it is hard to believe. But to get a resident permit, in addition to bunch of papers, you need to show them a doctor’s certificate and x-ray results for the tuberculosis screening test–something they have started since 60s and never thought if it is still needed in the 21 century. Complete waste of time and money, if you ask me. Being x-rayed for bureaucratic purposes is not fun.

Haven’t been able to follow what’s happening in the tennis world, except the scores. Needless to say, I also lost my interest, when learned that my favorite, David Nalbandian was sent packing in the first round. Que paso David?

I have yet to figure out how to get more English or Russian TV channels. Most of the channels on cable are either German, French or Luxembourgish. I saw some Wimbledon matches on a French channel. And Eurosport is obsessed with cycling. No matter how bad the US tennis coverage is, believe me, it is much better than not understanding what they are saying… but I loved their A-lya-lya!!!

The posts will be somewhat erratic this summer, since I will be traveling a lot, but I’ll do my best to post more often.

Congratulations to Venus! Vamos Rafa!