Maria Sharapova may not be No. 1 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour world rankings, but she is the leader in Russian women’s tennis, finishing as the top female player for the second consecutive year. Along with Nikolay Davydenko, she also earned top honors from the Russian Tennis Federation at its annual gala in Moscow on Sunday. It’s the second consecutive year the federation has named Sharapova has been named Russia’s best women’s player.
The 19-year-old Siberian-turned-Floridian also made the list of “Top 10 Russian Richest Athletes,” according to the website of the Russian daily Pravda. With earnings estimated at the mid-20 million dollar mark in 2005, Sharapova made headlines in Forbes magazine when she was crowned the highest-paid female athlete in the world.
The tennis starlet and two-time Grand Slammer was the only woman on Pravda’s list. Other athletes included the NBA’s Andre Kirilenko, boxer Konstantin Tszyu, and an array of hockey players, most notably Sergei Federov, Anna Kournikova’s ex-boyfriend and former fixture in her guest box.