Serena Williams may have been second best at the French Open Saturday but the American has moved ahead of fellow tennis player Maria Sharapova to top the women's earnings list in sports, according to Forbes Magazine. Williams ended the Russian's 11-year reign as the world No. 1 women's money earner in sports by hauling in $28.9 million in combined prize money and off-field earnings over the past 12 months, the magazine said Monday. Sharapova, who lost some sponsorship money after announcing she had tested positive for the recently banned substance meldonium at the Australian Open in January and is provisionally suspended, holds second spot at $21.9 million. American mixed martial arts standout Ronda Rousey shot up to third on the list at $14 million from eighth place and $6.5 million, just ahead of compatriot and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, who earned $13.9 million, according to www.forbes.com. The rest of the women's top 10 were also tennis players. Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska ranked fifth at $10.2 million followed by Dane Caroline Wozniacki ($8 million), Spain's newly-crowned French Open champion Garbine Muguruza ($7.6 million), Serb Ana Ivanovic ($7.4 million), Victoria Azarenka of Belarus ($6.6) and Canada's Eugenie Bouchard ($6.2 million). Williams's career prize money of $77.6 million amounts to more than twice as much as any other sportswoman's. However, Sharapova dominated in endorsement profits before companies including Nike, American Express, Porsche and TAG Heuer distanced themselves after she tested positive for meldonium. Sharapova earned $21.9 million over the past 12 months, down almost $8 million from the previous year, Forbes said. Spain seeks Neymar trial Neymar could follow FC Barcelona fellow star Lionel Messi to court after Spanish prosecutors asked for the Brazilian striker to be tried over his murky multi-million-euro transfer to the Catalan giant. Prosecutors from Spain's top criminal court accuse the 24-year-old, his father, Barca's ex-president Sandro Rosell and the club itself of concealing the true cost of his 2013 transfer deal from Brazil's Santos to FC Barcelona, a judicial source said Tuesday. If the case comes to trial, Neymar will be the second Barcelona star to take the stand after Lionel Messi appeared in court earlier this month on charges of tax fraud related to income earned from his image rights. Brazilian investment fund DIS, which held 40 percent of Neymar's sporting rights when he played at Santos, claims it was cheated of its real share of the transfer due to parallel contracts that Barcelona and Santos allegedly used to hide the total cost. They also believe a pre-contract agreement between Neymar and Barca impeded other clubs from making offers for the player, affecting the value of the transfer fee. The deal was originally valued at 57.1 million euros ($64.9 million) by Barca, 40 million of which was paid to the N&N company owned by the player's father. Santos — where Neymar started his career — received 17.1 million, 6.8 million euros of which went to DIS. However, Spanish judicial authorities have estimated the number of simultaneous deals in the transfer amounted to at least 83.3 million euros — with the difference allegedly going to Neymar and his family, and Santos. Rosell resigned from Barcelona in 2014 over the affair.
