Nadal earns €460K Prize Money for 2012 Monte-Carlo win over Djokovic

World #2 Rafael Nadal won his first title of the season by overwhelming world #1 Novak Djokovic in straight sets 6-3 6-1 at the 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament held at Monte-Carlo, Monaco. The win allowed Nadal to clinch his eighth-successive Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters title on Sunday and end a seven-match final losing streak against Djokovic. For the win, Nadal earns €460,260 in prize money and 1000 ranking points. Djokovic as runner-up earns €225,680 and 600 ranking points.

With the win, Nadal increases his career prize money earnings to beyond $47 million. He is second behind Roger Federer in the ATP career prize money leaders list. Federer has earned almost $70 million. With the runner-up prize money, Djokovic now has a total of around $36.5 million. He is fourth in the career prize money leaders list behind retired American Pete Sampras who is third with $43.3 million prize money earned. Below is a list of the top prize money leaders at the start of the 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on April 16, 2012.

Rank Player Career
1. Federer, Roger $69,746,521
2. Nadal, Rafael $46,789,842
3. Sampras, Pete $43,280,489
4. Djokovic, Novak $36,206,641
5. Agassi, Andre $31,152,975
6. Becker, Boris $25,080,956
7. Kafelnikov, Yevgeny $23,883,797
8. Lendl, Ivan $21,262,417
9. Edberg, Stefan $20,630,941
10. Roddick, Andy $20,228,866
11. Murray, Andy $20,200,873

The victory for the 25-year-old from Mallorca, Spain means that he is now the only tennis player ever to have won 20 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns. This is Nadal's first tennis tournament title since winning the French Open in June 2011. Nadal looked solid all week without dropping any set. He increased his tournament record to a staggering 44-1 win-loss count, having won 42 consecutive matches and losing only six sets since 2004. He has now won 33 clay court titles, the third most clay court wins in the Open era.

Despite the tournament win, Nadal will not increase his overall ranking points as he was simply defending his points won from last year's tournament victory. For Djokovic, his runner-up finish will allow him to increase his ranking points to beyond 13,000 points - a staggering total which puts him more than 3000 ranking points above Nadal. Djokovic did not play the Monte-Carlo tennis tournament in 2011. The loss today was Djokovic's first final loss of the season after winning tournaments in Melbourne and Indian Wells. He lost in the semifinals of the Dubai and Indian Wells tournaments. Nadal improves to 22-3 win-loss record for the season while Djokovic holds a 24-3 record.