Serena Williams retakes No. 1 ranking

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Serena Williams, finishing off her most lucrative year in women's tennis with a win at the Sony Ericsson Championships, is again ranked No. 1 in the world.

Williams bested sister Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) Sunday and completed an undefeated run through the championships in Doha, Qatar. That earned her a check for $1.55 million and pushed her 2009 winnings to $6.19 million.

She is the first woman to top $6 million in a year. The previous WTA record was $5.43 million by Justine Henin in 2007.

The win also returned Williams to the No. 1 ranking, displacing Dinara Safina, who narrowly moved to No. 1 last Monday. But Safina was unable to complete, outside of part of one match, at Doha because of a back injury. She'll end the year No. 2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova held onto her No. 3 ranking with the standings of No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 5 Elena Dementieva also unchanged.

Venus Williams is up one spot to No. 6, switching places with new No. 7 Victoria Azarenka. Jelena Jankovic is ranked eighth ahead of No. 9 Vera Zvonareva and No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska.