Serena beats Azarenka, wins 631K euros Prize Money for 2012 Mutua Madrid Open title

How much prize money did Serena Williams win for lifting the trophy at the 2012 Mutua Madrid Open? World no. 9 Serena was too good for world no. 1 Victoria Azarenka as she beat the top-seeded player 61 63 and win her second title of the year. With that trophy comes €631,000 in prize money, 1000 ranking points, and a French Open favorite tag. Azarenka takes home €313,000 in prize money and 700 ranking points for finishing as runner-up. Azarenka lost her second straight Madrid final after losing to Petra Kvitova last year, and second straight clay court tournament final as she lost to Maria Sharapova in the final match at Stuttgart two weeks ago.

It was the first Madrid title for Serena who now won her 41st WTA title. She also improved to seven wins in eight matches against the Belarussian. She has not lost in clay this year also winning the Charleston tennis tournament in April. Azarenka reached her sixth finals match for the year but was simply outclassed by the powerful Serena. Both players now fly to Rome for their final tournament tune-up before the second Grand Slam tournament of the year starts in Roland Garros at the end of this month.

Before the tournament, Azarenka led both men and women's tennis players with a year-to-date prize money of $4,063,450. Serena was no. 20 for the women's list with $325,423 but will jump to no. 4 after her Madrid prize money enabled her to become the fourth player this year to reach the $1 million milestone. Azarenka, Sharapova, and Radwanska are the first three players this year to reach the $1 million mark. In terms of career prize money, Serena increased her record prize money of $35,077,357 which she had before the tournament - this represents the most earnings by any professional female athlete in any sport. As for Azarenka, she moves past Russian Vera Zvonareva into no. 15 in the women's tennis career prize money rankings.

World no. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska and Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka who had a dream tournament each earned €149,500 in prize money and 450 ranking points for reaching the semi-finals of the Madrid tournament.