World-renowned Swiss tennis star Roger Federer has surpassed Argentina’s Lionel Messi to become the highest-earning athlete of the year for the first time.

Roger Federer, who has won a record 20 Grand Slam tournaments, is the first tennis player since 1990 to become first-class.

He was fifth on the list last year but jumped four places to top the Forbes list for the first time in his career.

In the last 12 months, Federer has earned 100 million as sports fees,  6.3 million from other contracts, and more than that in 2013 alone.

The coronavirus has hit the sports industry hard like any other activity in the world, and the sports industry is facing its worst crisis since 2016 in terms of the income of the first 100 players.

The total income of these first 100 athletes has dropped by a total of 9% and last year the total income of these 100 athletes was $3.6 billion while it is expected to decrease further next year.

In this list, Federer defeated Messi to take the first position and the Argentine football star is now at the third position after losing his income.

In second place is Messi’s rival Cristiano Ronaldo with a total income of  $105 million, while Messi earned 104 million.

Brazilian footballer Neymar is fourth on the list, earning  $102 million a year, while fifth-ranked basketball star Le Bourne James is making  $88.2 million.

Naomi Osaka is ranked 29th in the list of highest-earning athletes in the world, while Serena Williams is ranked 33rd.

Russia’s Maria Sharapova set a record in 2015, earning 97 29.7 million.

The list of the 100 highest-earning athletes was dominated by basketball, rugby, tennis and football stars and the only Indian cricketer in the top 100 list is Indian captain Virat Kohli who is ranked 68th in the list.

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