Game Week 28 draws

 We now have all the draws for Game Week 28.

The events taking place this week are:

ATP Chengdu

ATP Hangzhou

WTA Hua Hin

WTA Seoul

Remember the ATP events don't start until Wednesday.

How many players did you manage to field?  

Good luck everyone

Overall leaderboard after Game Week 27

 Here is the overall leaderboad after Game Week 27

(I've been that busy with updates today that I can't remember whether I loaded some game week 28 scores before taking a screenshot of the league table so there may be some extra points incorporated in here!)

Elin (Grylla's goldens)  is back on top of the table after winning game week 27, a position she has occupied for a large part of the season.  

Muhammad (Fedex Superstars) moves up 1 spot to 2nd place and sits just 140 points behind which is hardly anything at this stage.

Mohaib  (Dr. peRFect) had a week to forget with his decimated 3 player team managing just one win between them.

Even though the top 10 is getting pretty spread out, I think they all still have a chance of winning the overall title but perhaps the teams that are a bit further behind might have to start taking a few risks as we move into the Asian swing.  Trades could become crucial and it would be interesting to know how many trades each of these teams has left to play with.

Game Week 27 results

ok, so this game week was always going to be an odd one.

First week after a slam, no ATP events due to Davis Cup so just a WTA 500 in Guadalajara and a WTA 250 in Monastir.

There were a fair number of withdrawals as usual and once again, the players who were supposed to do well....didn't do well!  😆

In Guadalajara, the reigning champ Sakkari withdrew before the tournament began. Zheng, Badosa, BHM and Kalinskaya were other notable withdrawals.  The top 3 seeds - Ostapenko, Collins and Azarenka all lost their opening match. Bouzkova who many picked for the title seemed to be playing pretty well but unfortunately had to withdraw before her Quarter Final with Caroline Garcia. 

 In Monastir, the stick on favourite, Elise Mertens went out in the 2nd Round after a remarkable comeback from Eva Lys and most of the other top seeds all bombed out in the 1st of 2nd Round as well!

The upshot of all this is that we had 4 players who had never won a WTA title contesting the finals!

In Guadalajara, Magda Frech was a reasonably popular pick and proved to be the key differential for the teams who did well this week. Magda overcame Caroline Garcia in the semi final to set up a final with the Australian Olivia Gadecki who came through qualies and then beat Stephens, Collins, Trevisan and Osorio to reach the final.  Frech won the final in two tight sets but both players will move significantly up the rankings thanks to this being a 500 event.  A great week for both.

In Monastir we saw another great run from a qualifier in the shape of the Brit Sonay Kartal.  Perhaps her toughest battle of the week was overcoming Jacqueline Cristian in the 1st round but after that she overcame Hontama, Starodubtseva and an unfortunately ailing Eva Lys to set up a final with Rebecka Sramkova.  Sramkova was probably the favourite going into the final but she was far from her best and Kartal took full advantage taking a 6-3, 4-1 lead in no time.   Sramkova rallied at little in the latter stages of the match but Sonay held firm to win her maiden WTA title and you feel her career is only now getting started after a decent run at lower tier events this year.

So lets take a look at the weekly table - i know it didn't make pleasant reading for most folk.  I, personally, had what I would normally regard as a pretty crappy week and finished 3rd overall so lets just say the scoring was pretty low.  If you had Magda Frech then it was a good week!

One person who did have Magda Frech was the esteemed manager of Grylla's Goldens - Elin Bondal who is having a quite remarkable season.  She has been on top of the overall leaderboard for quite some time but was briefly pushed down recently.  Elin has bounced back in style though and had what can only be described as an excellent week finishing 43 points ahead of 2nd place Olya who is also flying high in the overall leaderboard this season.

Lets take a look at the head to head between these two teams.

Both Elin and Olya had Magda Frech as a KP which pretty much provided them with half of their points this week!  They also both had Mertens and Bouzkova who both provided decent points. Elin did get some decent points from Parry and Kudermetova though while Kalinina and Sherif flopped for Olya so that pretty much made the difference. 

I think its safe to say that collectively this was one of the lowest scoring weeks in the history of FTL but these weeks can still make a big difference so congratulations to Elin and Olya for scoring some decent points this week to bolster their hopes for the overall title.

Monthly Standings for August

 

Here are the monthly standings for August.

And here is a breakdown of the top 6 teams by week.

Congrats to Christopher (Titanium Pigment) who finished up on top for the month of August with an impressive score of 2225.17 largely thanks to two excellent 2nd place finishes in both Cincinnati and at the US Open.

Flo (Micro Tennis) takes 2nd spot and also topped the standings in Cinicnnati.  3rd place goes to Muhammed who was top of the table at the Canadian Open.

Kudos also to Anton (APG), Taylor (Stripes VII)  and Kevin (Swing Kings) who make up the top 6. 

US Open Results

 

Congrats to our US Open Champions Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner.

We had a few surprises along the way but the two eventual winners would probably have been favourites for most people to win the title.  

In the men's event, Carlos Alcaraz, who did seem to be off his game going into the event was a surprise early exit at the hands of Botic Van De Zandschulp of all people.  And perhaps still relaxing a little too much after securing the Olympic title, Novak Djokovic succumbed to Canadian Open champ Alexei Popyrin.  Americans were prospering however with Taylor Fritz defeating Alexander Zverev to set up an All American semi final with Frances Tiafoe, Siwhile in the other half of the draw Jannik Sinner faced surprise package Jack Draper who took full advantage of Alcaraz's early departure to make it to his first slam semi final. 

Fritz won the battle of the Americans and Jannik battled past an ailing Jack Draper to set up what promised to be an entertaining final but ultimately turned out to be a fairly one sided affair with Sinner securing his 2nd grand slam title in straight sets.

In the women's event we had a few surprises too.  Rybakina, who had recently split with her coach, seems to be struggling with health issues at the moment and pulled out of her 2nd round tie.  Reigning champ Coco Gauff fell once again at the hands of the impressive Emma Navarro and Iga Swiatek lost out to Pegula.

In the semi finals Jess Pegula came from behind to beat the talented Karolina Muchova while Aryna Sabalenka saw off the challenge of Emma Navarro.

So it was to be a repeat of the Cincinnati final between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula with Aryna once again coming out on top to secure her 3rd slam title.  Jess can console herself with having had an excellent American swing winning in Canada and finishing runner up in Cincinnati and at Flushing Meadows - a run which is firmly planted her back into a Tour Finals spot. Sabalenka only dropped one set in the whole event (to Alexandrova)

Here is the final global FTL Table for the US Open

And here is the head to head battle between the top 2.

Massive congrats to Kevin Ratcliffe who won the game week and was in fact the only player to break the 1000 barrier.  Congrats also to Christopher (Titanium Pigment) who was the best of the rest although Sonja (Ace Cream) and Akiko (Wimbyfan) were just marginally behind in 3rd and 4th respectively.

Both Kevin and Christopher had the winners in elevated spots.  Kevin had Sabalenka as Captain and Sinner as a KP and also had two other strong KPs in Zverev and Badosa who both made quarter finals.  Christopher Sinner as Captain and Sabalenka as a KP but also had Alcaraz as a KP which ultimately proved costly as Carlos's early exit did not return many bonus points.

Crucially both Kevin and Christopher had the ladies runner up Pegula but only as a TP.  Kevin got decent scores from Swiatek and Medevedev while Kevin had good returns from semi finalist Navarro and Rublev.

Dark horses were also significant with Kevin's DH Stearns outscoring Christopher's Noskova by 25 points due to a 1st round exit for Linda.

Game Week 25 results - ATP Winston Salem, WTA - Monterrey, WTA Cleveland

 

A little trip back in time is required to review Game Week 25 which was the final week of tournament play before the US Open.  We had a men's event in Winston Salem and WTA events in Monterrey and Cleveland.

The Winston Salem event had a remarkable 16 withdrawals from the main event so the starting line up bore very little resemblance to the original entry list.  And to make matters worse, the top 8 seeds in the event all lost in the 2nd Round.  

So the stage was set for a surprise winner.  We saw great runs  from American youngster Alex Michelsen but also old stagers David Goffin and PCB who both made the semi finals.  But ultimately it was Lorenzo Sonego who defied the form book.  He had a terrific week and was untouchable in the final against Michelsen who could easily have been defaulted had the umpire adhered to the letter of the law.

We've been waiting a while for the Noskova era to begin and perhaps it did in Monterrey as Linda finally secured her first WTA title.  And she did it in some style as she didn't drop a set in a week which saw her defeat Svitolina and Navarro before beating the up and coming Lulu Sun in the coming.

If Linda's first title was a long time coming, the title for McCartney Kessler in the Tennis in the Land event came out of nowhere. Unlike Noskova, Kessler was involved in quite a few battles during the week.  She came from a set down to defeat Xinyu Wang in the 2nd Round and then again to defeat Potapova in the semi final and Haddad Maia in the final.  It was quite the breakthrough for McCartney.

Here it is the FTL table for the game week.  Every now and again we have very close contest and this was certainly one of them.  Olga (Russian Warship Go Fuck Yourself)  just edged out Mikhail (Roger That) by the princely total of 0.25 points.

Here is the final global league table

Here is the head to head between the top two teams.

Olya had Monterrey winner Noskova but only as a team player.  She had Cleveland finalist Haddad Maia and also a great pick with semi finalist Carreno Busta.  Otherwise she had good returns from Emma Navarro and Magda Frech but captain Leylah Fernandez didn't deliver for her.

Mihhail also had Haddad Maia and Noskova but maximised the points from these two by having them as Captain and KP respectively.  Otherwise he had decent returns from Navarro and Siniakova.

Congrats to both Olya and Mikhail on a terrific week.  Mikhail can take consolation on just missing out on the top spot by the fact that he is still the level 2 prize winner!

Shout out to De Minotaurs, Dr peRFect and Grylla's Goldens who make up the top 5. 

Beware: Half-Blind Lockouts Are Coming 🙈

Heads up: we have a few "half-blind" lockouts coming our way in the next few Game Weeks. All ATP tournaments will be starting on Wednesdays up to and including Shanghai.

That means this coming GW28 will probably hit lockout before the ATP draws are available (WTA Starts Monday in Seoul).

Then WTA moves to a Wednesday start the following GW for Beijing, so GW29 should be "normal" (aside from it being on a Wednesday).

And then it's the WTA's turn to have a blind lockout with Wuhan being included with ATP Shanghai for GW30 -- but Wuhan doesn't start until the following Monday! (Sorry, but that was the only feasible way to do the GW schedule for FTL.) 

Personally, I like the added "spice" of having an occasional unknown draw. Sure it's frustrating and difficult to decide who you should play in your team, but it also makes it more interesting to have a bit more variety among the FTL rosters. Which risks are you willing to take, and what will your reward be?

Good luck, have fun!