Naomi Osaka, 21, won her second Grand Slam on Saturday when she beat Petra Kvitova, 28, in a dramatic three-set Australian Open final.
The win came with a $4.1 million AUD check ($2.9 million USD), the most lucrative payout in Australian Open history.
It's Osaka's second major win in a row. Last year, she made history when she defeated Serena Williams in the 2018 U.S. Open final and became the first Japanese-born tennis player to win a Grand Slam title.
The U.S. Open win in September also came with a sizable $3.8 million paycheck.
Just because she's earning lottery-sized paychecks doesn't mean she's spending a lot, though. In fact, after beating Williams at the U.S. Open, reporters asked if she was going to treat herself to anything, and she said she wasn't sure.
"I'm not really the type that spends money on myself," she said in the post-match press conference. "For me, as long as my family's happy, I'm happy. So when I see my sister … for me, that's the biggest gift."
That's reminiscent of how Williams, Osaka's childhood hero, reacted after earning her first million. Rather than splurging on anything, Williams deposited her money in the bank and walked away, Williams told Maverick Carter on an episode of "Kneading Dough."
Tennis has never been about getting paid, Williams said. In fact, she used to forget to collect her paychecks altogether.
"When I first turned pro, you had to go pick up your check," Williams said. "I never, never picked it up, so at the end of the year, the tournament directors would literally hand me the check because I would never go get it."
The saving mentality runs in the family. When her sister, Venus, earned her first big paycheck, she also sent it straight to the bank.
"I really didn't spend any of it," the tennis star tells CNBC Make It. "I just didn't want to become a statistic, or one of those athletes that had it all and then in the end had nothing. That was always in the back of my mind, so it made me want to be more realistic with how I spent money."
Don't miss: Here's what Venus Williams did with her first big paycheck—and it's not what you might expect
Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment