Radwanska earns $712,000 prize money for 1st Miami title

How much prize money did Agnieszka Radwanska win in defeating Maria Sharapova for the 2012 Miami tennis tournament? For winning her biggest tennis tournament in the 2012 Sony Ericsson Open, Radwanska earns $712,000 in prize money while Sharapova earns $352,000 for being runner-up. More importantly, the win allows Radwanska to earn 1000 ranking points as she closes the gap between her and world #3 Petra Kvitova. Radwanska has now won 2 titles this year after also winning the Dubai tournament in February. She now owns a 26-4 match record for the season - her four losses coming all against top ranked Victoria Azarenka.

Radwanska's win against Sharapova stopped a six-match losing streak she had against the world #2 player. She won all her matches in straight sets including a convincing quarterfinal victory against 3-time champion Venus Williams. In winning the title, Poland's top player becomes the 13th different winner of the Miami tennis tournament. She was also the first player from Poland to win the tournament. In losing, Sharapova now dropped to 0-4 in the finals of the tournament losing in all four of her championship matches including losses in 2005, 2006 and 2011.

Due to her prize money earnings, Radwanska now surpasses the $1 million mark for the year with a total of $1.6 million; she is the third top earner for the year behind Azarenka and Sharapova. She also is number three in the WTA Championships Singles Standings closing the gap between her and #2 Sharapova. Azarenka is still the player to beat in terms of ranking points won this year.

Sharapova quote after losing in the Miami 2012 final: "I thought she played extremely well today... She was very consistent, got that extra ball back and I made that extra mistake. She didn't give me many errors. When I had my chances at break point, I didn't take them. When she had them, she did. These last two tournaments are always the toughest just because they're so close together and [you're] playing six matches [at each] event... So I'm really happy that I got to play all six. Obviously I would have loved to be the winner, but it's just the way it goes."

Radwanska quote after winning her first Miami title: "I really played well today, from the beginning till the end ... I was really focusing on my serve, and I'm very happy I didn't lose my serve. It was actually I think the key on this match. I think I was just playing very good today. Everything was working. I couldn't complain about anything."

Watch the highlights of the Radwanska vs Sharapova Miami 2012 finals here.