Fairways and Forehands 2014 Top 25 WTA and LPGA Year In Review: #15 Angelique Kerber and Cristie Kerr

Angelique Kerber (click to enlarge)

Like 2013, this year I will do a countdown of the top money list leaders from both the WTA and LPGA. Last year I did the top 30, but this year I will do the top 25. Note that as of this post, the retired Li Na has been removed from the WTA website money list rankings, but I will include her here. Thus, some WTA players will be off by one position on my list compared to the WTA website list. Also, Hyo Joo Kim is not on my LPGA list due to not being a member this year. I’m certain she will be on the list in the future. For the WTA, singles, doubles and mixed are combined for this top 25. Number 15 on this money list for each tour are Angelique Kerber (WTA) and Cristie Kerr (LPGA).

ANGELIQUE KERBER (Germany)

2014 Official WTA Prize Money: $1,862,585

Best Results: RUNNER-UP Apia International Sydney, Qatar Total Open, Aegon International, Bank of the West Classic; SF Toray Pan Pacific Open; QF Wimbledon, Sony Open, Brisbane International, Open GDF Suez, Nurnberger Versicherungscup, Wuhan Open; Team RUNNER-UP Fed Cup (Team Germany)

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To be sure, it was a fantastic season for Angelique Kerber. Four singles finals, a Fed Cup final plus a semifinal appearance at Wimbledon. That’s better than a lot of great players on this tour. But it was so close to being a special season. Sure, she reached all those finals. Unfortunately for her, she was runner-up each time. Two of those instances were against Simona Halep (Doha) and Serena Williams (Stanford), so although as a competitor Angie never settles for losing, those she can probably live with. It’s the losses to Tsvetana Pironkova (Sydney) and Madison Keys (Eastbourne) that probably sting the most. Those were the first singles titles for each of those opponents. Both players are good. In fact, Madison Keys is on the verge of becoming great over the next couple of seasons. But had Angie been able to win those two tournaments, as well as win Fed Cup with Team Germany, this is a year to remember. At the end of the day, I hope she can sit back and look at how much solid play she put in this year and know that it was an amazing season regardless of playing bridesmaid so often.

Cristie Kerr (click to enlarge)

CRISTIE KERR (United States)

2014 Official LPGA Prize Money: $911,833

Best Results: T4 Kraft Nabisco Championship, 2nd Manulife Financial, T2 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, 3rd Marathon Classic, 5th Kia Classic, T6 North Texas LPGA Shootout, T7 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, T9 LPGA Lotte Championship, T9 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, T9 Meijer LPGA Classic, T10 JTBC Founders Cup

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Much like I said with Angelique Kerber, Cristie Kerr might not have won a tournament in 2014 but she still had an amazing year. A couple of second place finishes. She had her best scoring average (70.57) since 2010. She also had her highest number of top 10 finishes (11) since 2011. Similar to Angela Stanford, Cristie is a seasoned veteran who just keeps performing at a very high level. There is no reason to doubt that she’ll continue to do so in 2015. Another thing, of more significance, is that she will also continue to be a tireless breast cancer activist. Morgan Pressel didn’t make this countdown, so I’d like to take a moment to salute both Morgan and Cristie for the money they raise, the awareness they build, the mammograms they help make available to some who might not get them…basically all they do to fight the battle against breast cancer and save lives.