Every time that Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova face off, it's a highly-anticipated match...one that usually ends in Serena dominating her rival.

History repeated itself Thursday (July 9), when Williams destroyed Sharapova, 6-2, 6-4, in Wimbledon semifinal action. The win marked Williams' 17th consecutive victory over Sharapova. In fact, you'd have to date back to the 2004 Wimbledon tournament for the last time that Sharapova defeated Williams.

Since that time, Williams, with 20 Grand Slam singles titles, is knocking on the door of history, approaching Steffi Graff (22) and Margaret Court (24) for most Grand Slam championships in women's tennis history. Meanwhile Sharapova has five career Grand Slam titles to her name, period.

While the on-court comparison is as lopsided as it gets, would you be surprised to learn that Sharapova actually made more money than Williams last year?

In referring to Forbes' annual highest-paid athlete list, a Think Progress report points out the fact that Sharapova earned $24.4 million, nearly $2.5 million more than Williams's $22 million in 2014. How does that even happen? Endorsements of course.

Endorsements are clearly Sharapova's top bread winner, as she raked in $22 million in ads alone last year, in comparison to $2.4 million in prize money from tennis. Williams pocketed $11 million in prize money with her dominant on-court play and $11 million in endorsements.

This just goes to show how flexible athletes' revenue streams can be.

In Sharapova's case, if the sport itself isn't making the athlete enough money, there are other ways of getting it. Meanwhile, it seems like Williams will keep dominating tennis and do just fine in endorsements as well.

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