Solid year has Sharapova atop rankings

Maria Sharapova takes the world No. 1 ranking and top women's singles seed into the Wimbledon Championships this week. A win at the French Open allowed Sharapova to regain the No. 1 ranking. She piled up ranking points with a 36-5 record -- 19-1 in her last four tournaments -- in 2012, with two other tournament titles and three runner-up finishes. Sharapova has 9,490 rankings points while No. 2-ranked Victoria Azarenka, who beat Sharapova in the Australian Open final, has 8,890. Agnieszka Radwanska comes in at No. 3 with 7,230 points and Petra Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in the 2011 Wimbledon final, remains fourth with 6,775 points. Samantha Stosur has 6,100, which is fifth best and Serena Williams (5,640) comes in sixth. Caroline Wozniacki (4,366) is seventh, fewer than 100 points ahead of eighth-ranked Angelique Kerber (4,275). Marion Bartoli (3,800) and Sara Errani (3,350) complete the Top 10. Last week's winners on the WTA tour were Nadia Petrova at the UNICEF Open and Tamira Paszek at the AEGON International. Petrova improves her ranking two places to No. 20 and Paszek jumps up 22 spots to No. 37 this week.