Fairways and Forehands 2014 Top 25 WTA and LPGA Year In Review: #11 Ekaterina Makarova and Suzann Pettersen

Ekaterina Makarova (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 11 on this money list for each tour are Ekaterina Makarova (WTA) and Suzann Pettersen (LPGA).

EKATERINA MAKAROVA (Russia)

2014 Official WTA Prize Money: $2,345,310

Best Results: Singles WINNER (1) PTT Pattaya Open; SF (3) US Open, Rogers Cup, Citi Open; QF (2) Wimbledon, Aegon International; Doubles (all with partner Elena Vesnina) WINNER (1) US Open; RUNNER-UP (2) Australian Open, Sony Open

Ekaterina Makarova was again a force on the WTA Tour in doubles during the 2014 season. Partnering with Elena Vesnina, they reached the final of two Majors, winning the US Open and finishing runner-up at the Australian Open. The US Open win was the second Major for Makarova and Vesnina, following their 2013 Roland Garros triumph. It was Kate’s third doubles Major with a mixed doubles title at the 2012 US Open with Bruno Soares added in. But the great leap forward for Makarova was in singles. She won her second career singles title at the PTT Pattaya Open, her first singles title since 2010. Kate also reached her first Major semifinal in singles at the US Open to go with her best ever finish at Wimbledon, a quarterfinal berth. She was rewarded by finishing the year with her best ever ranking in singles, #11. At 26, if there is a time for her to start making a lot of noise in singles, it’s now. She has size, power and should be able to generate tricky spins and slices with her left handed playing style. We’ll see if Kate can make 2015 her first season with multiple singles wins.

Suzann Pettersen (click to enlarge)

SUZANN PETTERSEN (Norway)

2014 Official LPGA Prize Money: $1,001,927

Best Results: T2 Ricoh Women’s British Open, 6th Evian Championship, T6 Wegmans LPGA Championship, 3rd Meijer LPGA Classic, T4 HSBC Women’s Champions, T6 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, T6 North Texas LPGA Shootout, T7 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, T8 Manulife Financial LPGA Classic, 10th Honda LPGA Thailand

A few days ago I wrote about how the high standard Na Yeon Choi has set for herself made her 2014 season seem less impressive than it actually was. You could pretty much say the same thing for Suzann Pettersen to an even greater degree. A million dollars in prize money. 11th on the money list. 3rd best scoring average (70.28) of her career. 6th on the scoring list. Double digit (10) top 10 finishes. Choose the metric and it’s likely to point to an amazing year for Tutta. Like Na Yeon, Pettersen’s only problem…if there even is one…would be her own lofty career achievements. 11th on the money list is fantastic, but it is also the first time she’s been out of the top 10 on the season money list since 2006. This was the first year Tutta hasn’t won an LPGA event since 2010. But again, I don’t want to dwell on what wasn’t achieved because what was achieved was so much more impressive. Pettersen is a tremendous competitor so I can imagine she wants to win, not just rack up top 10s. But hopefully she can look back at 2014 and know she once again proved to be one of the greatest players in women’s golf.