Serena Williams Nearly Left Behind Her Big Prize Money Early In Her Career

Former tennis superstar Serena Williams not only a great player but also made a lot of money from her career.

She was focused not only on winning but also on making money when she started playing tennis.

The Women’s Tennis Association reports that the 42-year-old retired in 2022 after earning $94.8 million in prize money as a tennis player. She was close to leaving a significant portion of her career early on.

Williams stated last week on First We Feast’s YouTube talk show “Hot Ones” that she was so focused on her performance that she would nearly leave cities without collecting her money.

“Is it true that you rarely collected your winnings your first year on tour and then once tried unsuccessfully to cash your first million-dollar check in a drive through ATM?” host Sean Evans asked her.

“Those are all true,” responded Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 73 career singles titles during her 27-year career. “I never played for money. I played because I loved the sport … I wanted to win.”

Williams made her professional debut in 1995 at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada, where she lost a qualifying match and played just one game. She was paid $240, according to reports. She stated that she was not eager to spend that money when she was 14 years old.

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When Williams received her first million-dollar check, the same was true. She recalled that while Williams’s coworkers were enthusiastic about the dollar amount, all she wanted to do was deposit it and get back to work.

“I never really spent a lot of money,” said Williams. “I just went through the drive-thru and the guy was like, ‘Uh, I think you need to come inside for this.’’

She recalled that her “tax guy” had to remind her to get her money while touring as her career developed.

″He would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich. I forgot that one in Moscow,’” Williams said. “I was playing to win, and if I didn’t win, I wasn’t thinking. I was just so angry that I wanted to just figure out a way to get better and win the next time.”

Williams’ early-career experiences were part of her financial literacy education: When she started making her own money as a teen, her dad Richard made sure that she was in charge of it, she told Bloomberg’s ‘The Deal’ podcast in May.

“I remember having to figure that out and having to learn how to manage from a very early age and not get crazy with it, and so he empowered us to do that,” Williams said, adding that when it came time to weigh sponsorship deals with companies like Puma and Nike, she always had a seat at the table.

“I’m 16, my dad is negotiating, they’re going back and forth, and he wants me there for the whole time to make sure I know what to do in the future,” she said. “I learned early on that your paycheck from tennis — maybe that’s why I forgot them — should be your smallest earning.”