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Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova has reportedly topped the list of Forbes magazine's world's ten best-paid female athletes with total earnings of 29 million dollars between June 2012 and June this year.
According to The Nation, though the tennis players have dominated the Forbes list of top earners but still there is a huge gap in earnings with their male counterparts in most sports.
After Sharapova, world number one Serena Williams from United States made it to the second spot with yearly income of 20.5 million dollars. China's Li Na spotted on the third with position 18.2 million dollars and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus fourth with 15.7 million dollars.
The report further added that Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark came in seventh with 13.6 million dollars, followed by Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in eighth place with 7.4 million dollars and Serbia's Ana Ivanovic in the ninth place with seven million dollars.
In addition to that, the fifth, sixth and the tenth position were occupied by US Nascar driver Danica Patrick (with 15 million dollars), South Korean figure skater Kim Yuna (with 14 million dollars) and American golfer Paula Creamer (with 5.5 million dollars) respectively and are the only non-tennis stars in the top ten.
According to Forbes, there was an increase in the uniformity in the game in terms of pay, after moves in recent years to put prize money on a more equal footing, adding that endorsements that come on the back of Grand Slam wins such as Sharapova's 2012 French Open title dwarf most players' winnings.
The report further added that Sharapova earned 23 million dollars through her endorsements with sportswear manufacturers Head and Nike after her victory at Roland Garros, which is more than current men's number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia (26.9 million dollars) and Spain's Rafael Nadal (26.4 million dollars) in the general top 100 list.
-With inputs from ANI
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