By Nick Georgandis
Tennis stars are some of the post powerful athletes in the world, according to Bloomberg Sports, which released its annual list of the 100 most powerful athletes, both on and off the field, last week.
Athletes are ranked based on on-field -which means world rankings - and off-field (endorsement potential ,endorsement earnings and social media presence) attributes.
With that formula in place, tennis produced two of the top six and three of the top 12 most powerful athletes in the world.
Seventeen-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer ranks fifth overall, a step up from sixth last year and 15th two years ago.
His total power rankings is 73.01. Current No. 1 Novak Djokovic is right at Federer's heels, sixth with a power ranking of 72.93.
American Serena Williams, No. 1 on the WTA tour, is 12th at 69.46 and is the top woman in the rankings, way up from 25th a year ago.
The world's top-rated athlete is the NBA's LeBron James, with a score of 89.26, followed by golf's Tiger Woods (86.01) and NFL quarterbacks Peyton Manning (81.46) and Drew Brees (77.99). Following Federer and Djokovic are the NBA's Kobe Bryant (72.25), Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps (71.09) and NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady (69.98) and Aaron Rodgers (69.74).
Maria Sharpaova ranks 20th overall and third among women at 63.53 (Olympic gymnastics phenom Gabby Douglas is 18th). Based largely on his injuries, Rafael Nadal dropped from fifth a year ago to 22nd this year.
Making giant leaps the other way are Andy Murray, who surged from 80th to 31st, and Victoria Azarenka, who jumped from 96th to 32nd. Funny what a few Grand Slam titles and Olympic gold medals can do for you.
Despite not having won a Grand Slam title since 2008, Venus Williams sits 57th int he Power 100, thanks largely to her off-the-court business presence.
Petra Kvitova is 79th and Caroline Wozniacki 80th, a steep drop from 40th last year for the Dane, who largely remains int he public eye due to her romantic relationship with Rory McIlroy, who is 14th in the Power 100.
Agnieszka Radwanska is 89th in the rankings,