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Tennis • Serena Williams likes to make one thing clear: She is never satisfied, no matter how much she wins.
Driven as ever, Williams won plenty this year. She went 78-4 with 11 titles, including at the French Open and U.S. Open, raising her Grand Slam championship total to 17. She compiled a 34-match winning streak. She earned more than $12 million in prize money, a record for women's tennis. In February, she became the oldest No. 1 in WTA rankings history and never left that perch.
Thanks to all of that, Williams was honored Wednesday as The Associated Press' 2013 Female Athlete of the Year. It's the third AP award for Williams, following 2002 and 2009. Only two women have been chosen more often as AP Athlete of the Year since the annual awards were first handed out in 1931.
The vote by news organizations was about as lopsided as many of Williams' matches this season. She received 55 of 96 votes, while Brittney Griner, a two-time AP Player of the Year in college basketball and the No. 1 pick in April's WNBA Draft, finished second with 14. Swimmer Missy Franklin was next with 10.
Russia plans extra $50M for Sochi
Olympics • Russia's Cabinet has approved the allocation of nearly $50 million in extra subsidies for the organizers of the Sochi Olympics.
The Cabinet's decision, reported by the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday, takes the total number of subsidies for the Sochi Organizing Committee to the equivalent of more than $420 million.
The Cabinet said the extra money would finance the committee's activities.
The allocations for the organizing committee are a small share of the total Sochi Games costs that amount to $51 billion, making them the most expensive Olympics in history.
The games will take place from Feb. 7-23.
From wire reports