Fairways and Forehands 2013 Top 30 WTA and LPGA Year In Review: #22 Jiyai Shin and Hsieh Su-Wei

Jiyai Shin wins ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open 2013 (click to enlarge)

Instead of a year in review focusing on overall achievements, I thought this time I’d do a countdown of the top 30 money list leaders from the WTA and LPGA. For the WTA, singles, doubles and mixed are combined for this top 30. Number 22 on the money list from each tour are Jiyai Shin (LPGA) and Hsieh Su-Wei (WTA).

JIYAI SHIN (South Korea)

2013 Official LPGA Prizemoney: $602,875

Best Finishes: Winner ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, T4 Mobile Bay LPGA Classic, T5 Wegmans LPGA Championship, T7 Kraft Nabisco Championship, T8 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship

Jiyai Shin began 2013 in style, winning right out of the gate at the year’s first event, the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. It was her 11th LPGA victory, adding to an incredible worldwide professional win total of 37. At only 25 years old with her LPGA win total, 2 Majors and a money list title, it’s not inconceivable that Jiyai might make a run at the Hall of Fame. There’s a lot more work to be done on the LPGA tour to achieve that, but it’s not out of reach.

Wegmans LPGA Championship 2013 (click to enlarge)

Jiyai has won every year she’s been on the LPGA Tour, save for 2011, a year where she battled injury. Never a big hitter, she continues to live up to one of her many nicknames, “Chalk Line” by finishing 2nd in driving accuracy. You’ll rarely see Jiyai in the trees. Some of her overall numbers were a bit down. Sure, her 5 top 10s are her lowest total to date, as is her 22nd finish on the money list. But that’s nitpicking somewhat. Jiyai remains one of the best players on tour and she still wins.

Hsieh Su-Wei (l) and Peng Shuai (r) win Wimbledon 2013 Ladies Doubles (click to enlarge)

HSIEH SU-WEI (Taiwan)

Singles: $339,156 Doubles: $756,688 Mixed: $13,436

2013 Official WTA Prizemoney: $1,109,280

Best Finishes: Doubles, all wins: Wimbledon, WTA Championships, Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Western & Southern Open, Guangzhou International Women’s Open

It was a tremendous year for Hsieh Su-Wei (family name is Hsieh). She partnered with Peng Shuai to win her first Major, Wimbledon. The Hsieh-Peng team also won the year end WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul. In all, they won 5 titles in 2013 en route to Hsieh Su-Wei reaching her career high doubles ranking of #3. For Su-Wei, she owns 14 WTA doubles. Although Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani won WTA Doubles Team of the Year, a legitimate argument could be made that it should have gone to Hsieh Su-Wei and Peng Shuai.

Peng Shuai (l) and Hsieh Su-Wei win 2013 WTA Tour Championships Double Title (click to enlarge)

Singles play was a bit of a struggle for Su-Wei. She did reach the quarterfinals of Kuala Lumpur, but mostly it was first or second round exits in 2013. No matter, it’s in doubles that Su-Wei shines. If she and Peng Shuai continue to play in 2014 as they did in 2013, it might be only a matter of time before they are seen as the best doubles team in the world.