CELEBRITY
Serena’s farewell tour gets top billing on Day One at U.S. Open
Serena Williams will kick off what is likely to be the last event of her farewell tour on Monday at the U.S. Open where she will headline opening night in a first-round clash with Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic.
Williams, who three weeks ago announced her forthcoming retirement from tennis, will play the 7 p.m. ET (2300 GMT) match in front of more than 23,000 hollering fans on Arthur Ashe Stadium, where she has won six of her 23 Grand Slam titles.
Aug 28 (Reuters) – Serena Williams will kick off what is likely to be the last event of her farewell tour on Monday at the U.S. Open where she will headline opening night in a first-round clash with Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic.
Williams, who three weeks ago announced her forthcoming retirement from tennis, will play the 7 p.m. ET (2300 GMT) match in front of more than 23,000 hollering fans on Arthur Ashe Stadium, where she has won six of her 23 Grand Slam titles.
While far from the form she enjoyed at the height of her illustrious career, the 40-year-old Williams will look to overwhelm Kovinic in their first career match-up with her trademark mix of powerful serves and groundstrokes.
For Williams, who missed last year’s U.S. Open with a leg injury and only returned to singles action at Wimbledon in June, emotions will be running high at the final Grand Slam of 2022.
“I definitely will be very emotional,” Williams, who is also playing in the doubles competition with older sister Venus, said on the debut episode of Meghan Markle’s ‘Archetypes’ podcast that was released last week. “How am I not gonna cry?
“Maybe if I hopefully can get through a couple of matches, then maybe I’ll feel better but I think initially it’s going to be hard because every time I step out there, it’s literally my last time.”
While facing Williams in the first round of a Grand Slam may once have been one of the more daunting tasks in tennis, Kovinic may like her chances given the recent form of her opponent.
Since announcing her pending retirement, Williams has lost every match she has played, the first in straight sets to Belinda Bencic at Toronto and then at Cincinnati where she was trounced 6-4 6-0 by U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.
Kovinic, 27, has lost her last five matches but the aggressive baseliner will take plenty of confidence into her showdown with Williams given she has enjoyed her best career results in the two Grand Slam events she played this year.
The Montenegrin advanced to the third round at both the Australian Open, where she beat Britain’s Raducanu in the second round, and French Open where she delivered a valiant performance in a losing effort against world number one Iga Swiatek.
Currently at 80th in the rankings, Kovinic reached a career-best of No. 46 six years ago and is making her fifth main draw appearance at a U.S. Open where she reached the second round in 2015 and 2020.
-Reuters
Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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For the third year in a row, and the fifth time overall, Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete.
But at age 40, the Portuguese soccer superstar is reaching new highs.
Over the past 12 months, counting both his playing salary at Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr and his off-field business endeavors, Ronaldo collected an estimated $275 million before taxes and agent fees—the third-best year by an active athlete ever measured by Forbes.
On that all-time list, Ronaldo is surpassed only by boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned $300 million in 2015 and $285 million in 2018.
And when it comes to the 2025 leaderboard, Ronaldo has a $119 million advantage over No. 2, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
The League of Wealthy Sportsmen
The gap is especially impressive considering that Curry’s $156 million total is also a record for his sport, beating the NBA mark of $128.2 million set last year by LeBron James.
And there are plenty of other eye-popping paydays among this year’s 10 highest-paid athletes, starting with James, who notched a personal-best $133.8 million to land at No. 6. Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (No. 4, $137million) and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto (No. 7, $114 million) broke records for the NFL and MLB.
Combined, the 10 highest-paid athletes brought in $1.4 billion, up slightly from last year’s $1.38 billion and the largest total since Forbes began ranking athlete earnings in 1990.
This year is also only the second time, after 2024, that every member of the top 10 made at least $100 million.
In fact, heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk ($101 million) and golfer Jon Rahm ($100 million) reached the milestone, too, without managing to crack this list.
For the third year in a row, and the fifth time overall, Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete.
But at age 40, the Portuguese soccer superstar is reaching new highs.
Over the past 12 months, counting both his playing salary at Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr and his off-field business endeavors, Ronaldo collected an estimated $275 million before taxes and agent fees—the third-best year by an active athlete ever measured by Forbes.
On that all-time list, Ronaldo is surpassed only by boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned $300 million in 2015 and $285 million in 2018.
And when it comes to the 2025 leaderboard, Ronaldo has a $119 million advantage over No. 2, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
The gap is especially impressive considering that Curry’s $156 million total is also a record for his sport, beating the NBA mark of $128.2 million set last year by LeBron James.
And there are plenty of other eye-popping paydays among this year’s 10 highest-paid athletes, starting with James, who notched a personal-best $133.8 million to land at No. 6. Meanwhile, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (No. 4, $137million) and New York Mets outfielder Juan Soto (No. 7, $114 million) broke records for the NFL and MLB.
Combined, the 10 highest-paid athletes brought in $1.4 billion, up slightly from last year’s $1.38 billion and the largest total since Forbes began ranking athlete earnings in 1990.
This year is also only the second time, after 2024, that every member of the top 10 made at least $100 million.
In fact, heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk ($101 million) and golfer Jon Rahm ($100 million) reached the milestone, too, without managing to crack this list.
World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2025
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