Game Week 32 Round up

 

Congratulations to our four champs in Game Week 32.

Paris Masters -  Jannik Sinner

Hong Kong - Victoria Mboko

Jiujiang -  Anna Blinkova

Chennai -  Janice Tjen

Paris Masters  roundup

Jannik Sinner continues to dominate on indoor hard courts.  He now has a winning streak of 26 matches in a row over a two year period which is still far short of the remarkable run of John McEnroe who won 47 consecutive matches over a 9 year period between 1978 and 1987.

In the process, Jannik reclaimed the no 1 spot in the rankings with Carlos Alcaraz a surprise early exit at the hands of Britain's Cameron Norrie.

Sinner continued his domineering form from  Vienna as he did not drop a set all week en route to the final dispatching Bergs, Cerundolo, Shelton and an ailing Zverev with ease.

His opponent in the final was Felix Auger Aliassime who was making a remarkable late bid to snatch the last spot at the Tour Finals away from the present incumbent Lorenzo Musetti.  A victory in the final for FAA would have secured his spot but by falling short in the final against Sinner, it left the door open for Musetti to recover his positon if he wins Athens.  

FAA has the option to play in Metz in the last week of the season but chose to skip the week due to physical issues and has therefore opened the door for Lorenzo who, as I type this has made it to the semi finals in Athens.  It will be very interesting if his fate depends on a final against Novak Djokovic.  Needless to say, one or two players may be missing from the ATP Finals photoshoot.

Hong Kong

Congrats to Victoria Mboko on winning her 2nd WTA title.  The talented Canadian youngster stunned the tennis world when she won the 1000 title in Montreal earlier this year.  Since then her form has been a bit patchy but she was back to her best in Hong Kong.

She had to fight for it though.  Three sets were required to see off another breakthrough star in the shape of Alexanrda Eala in the 2nd Round.  And she needed to go the distance again to see off in form compatriot Leylah Fernandez.   

The final itself was another terrific battle.  She faced the Spaniard Cristina Bucsa and looked to be in control at a set and a break up but Bucsa fought back taking the 2nd set after a thrilling tie break but in the end it was Mboko who took control in the third.

Jiangxi Open

One of the stories of the week in Jiujiang was the performance of young Lilli Tagger - an Austrian 17 year old who was playing her first WTA Tour level event after winning the French Open juniors earlier this year.  

Lilli defeated Chenting Zhu, Cocciaretto and Korpatsch to set up a semi final with Victoria Golubic.  That proved to be a terrific struggle with Lilli fighting back to secure a three set win setting up a final with the Russian Anna Blinkova.

Blinky (does anyone else call her that or just me?)  had a terrific week and did not drop a set on her path to the final which included wins over Paquet, Bondar, Parks and Salkova. Perhaps a little bit of experience helped as Blinkova comfortably won the final to win her 2nd WTA title.

Did anyone see Blinky's acceptance speech delivered in Mandarin.  (she had even been chatting to fans in Mandarin a language which she has only recently started studying.)   Blinky is a bit of a polyglot who is already proficient in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Slovakian.

Chennai

And finally to Chennai and another new name who is making waves on the WTA tennis circuit this year.  That would be Janice Tjen of Malaysia - a popular pick with many FTLers this week. 

Janice has won 14 titles at ITF and Challenger level over the last two years and attracted some interest when she qualified for the US Open and defeated Veronika Kudermetova before losing in the 2nd round to Raducanu,

She very nearly won her first WTA title shortly after that, reaching the final in Sao Paulo where she lost to Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France.

But she finally secured her first WTA title of her career in India defeating the Australian Kimberly Birrell in the final.

Here is the Global FTL table for the Game Week.

Congratulations to our game week winner  JK2025  (Jakub)  who had an outstanding week, amassing a total of 627.547 points which was almost 40 points more than Violet's Grass Court Masters in 2nd place.

Lets take a look at Jakub's team...

Jakub could hardly have a picked a better starting quartet.  Jannik Sinner as Captain (ok we pretty much all had him apart from a few opportunists who went with Alcaraz) but also the other three semi finalists were all there as Key Players.  If that's not enough Jakub also had WTA Hong Kong  winner Victoria Mboko and also had a decent return from Valentin Vacherot who did pretty well in Paris.  All in all an incredible week!

Turning to level 2 - the battle for the weekly prize was between Grass Court Masters (Violet) and Prepare for Czech Mate (Tricia)

Here is the head to head between the two teams

Two almost identical sides to be honest.  Both captained Sinner and had two other Paris semi finalists in FAA and Zverev.  Both were savvy in joining the Janice Tjen train and played her as a KP.  The only difference was that Violet picked a third winner in the shape of Mboko and also played her as a KP.  Tricia's Medvedev scored well but couldn't match the points Victoria secured in Hong Kong.

Congrats to both on a great week. 

Game Week 32 - monthly standings

Lets go Dukla!!   

Not often I get to blow my own trumpet but after a distinctly average season so far, Dukla are having a strong end to the year in their bid to achieve a top 20 finish in the Global League.

A consistent 4 weeks including 2 top 10 finishes was enough for Dukla  to top the global monthly standings just ahead of nbladeweilder (Nikhil) who are also having a great end to the season and currently sit 2nd in the overall standings.

Nikhil will take the level 2 monthly prize.

Congrats to our top 5 - Nikhil, Devin, Gordon, Tricia and Dragan on a great October.

Game Week 31 Round Up

 

Four champs to congratulate this week!

ATP 500 Swiss Indoors

First up - its a huge congratulations to Joao Fonseca who won his 2nd ATP final of the year beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final.  Fonseca maybe hasn't had the breakout year many were predicting but it has  still been pretty decent and this win has bolstered his ranking going in 2026.   The wait for a first ATP title goes on for ADF - five times finalist but still to get his first winners trophy.

Two of the main contenders for an ATP Tour fianls slot, FAA and Ruud both ended up retiring in the Quarter Finals along with Shapovalov.  And there was a further retirement in the semi final with Humbert - strange goings on in Basel!!

WTA 500  Tokyo

The main storyline for this event was whether Elena Rybakina could win the two matches she needed to reach the semi finals and ensure her qualification for the WTA finals in Riyadh.

It wasn't an easy draw for her and she had to beat two talented Canadian youngsters in the shape of Leylah Fernandez and Victoria Mboko.   But Elena got it done without dropping a set and promptly withdrew from her semi final with Linda Noskova!  

The winner was Belinda Bencic who has had a terrific year since returning to the tour from having her first child.  She now sits at No 11 in the rankings.  This was her 10th career title and her 2nd since returning as a mum.

WTA 250 Guangzhou

It was third time lucky for Ann Li this year.  She had already made finals in Singapore and Cleveland this year but this was her first trophy.  A good week too for Lulu Sun who has struggled to reach her best level this year and just fell short in the final with Ann winning 7-6, 6-2.

ATP 500 Vienna

The top seeds lived up to their billing in the Vienna event.  Sinner, De Minaur, Zverev and Musetti all made it to the semi finals and there is a good chance we will see all 4 of them in Turin at the end of the season although FAA is hot on the heels of Musetti.

And it was the top two who made the final.  Zverev will be pleased he is ending the season strongly after a number of injury issues and he pushed Sinner close in the final but couldn't stop the Italian extending his indoor winning streak.

Here is the final FTL table for the game week. 

Massive congrats to Win Matas who is this weeks game week champ with a terrific total of 477 points.  A victory for perseverance as Win has being waiting for that elusive game week title for some time.  Mark McDonald was the best of the rest finishing just 23 points back.

Here is the head to head between the two:

A pretty close run contest between these two teams.  Mark was off to a little bit of a false start as he had still included Pegula despite the fact that she had called time on her Asian swing long before this event!  No matter though Berrettini turned out to be an adequate substitute!

Both teams had a significant WTA differential in their team with Win backing Tokyo winner Belinda Bencic as a key player and Mark fielding Guangzhou winner Ann Li.

Zverev perhaps was the key differential between these two teams scoring 63 points for Win, as runner up in Vienna.

Congrats to Win and Mark on a great week!

  

GAMEWEEK 32 DRAWS AND DARK HORSE BREAKDOWN

I have attached the Draws (FTL Version) and Dark Horse Breakdown for The Paris Masters (Mens Event).  Please note that there was a long list of midmatch retirements and withdrawals in both Basel and Vienna, so we could easily see some changes before the Main Draw starts on Monday.  A couple of withdrawals have already occurred (Benjamin Bonzi, and Jakub Mensik)

 
I've also provided the Draws for the 3 womens events - Hong Kong, Jiangxi, and Chennai.  Since the draws initially came out, 3 Lucky Losers were added to Chennai as Ana-Lena Friedsam,  Lulu Sun, and Lucrezia Stefanini all withdrew.  No changes have been made to either Hong Kong or Jiangxi, but that almost feels like a matter of time, so keep your eye out.

 

Do not forget to select your Dark Horse for the Mens event in Paris

 

If you want a copy, click on the link, GW32 DRAWS Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want

Good Luck :)

Game Week 30 Roundup

 

Congrats to our 5 winners this week.  An entertaining week of tennis which certainly shakes things up a little with regard to the WTA and ATP Tour finals race.

Lets start with the woman first.  The race to Riyadh took a significant turn in this game week.  With 6 players already qualified, the battle for the two remaining spots was between Mirra Andreeva, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina.

Mirra has been on a poor run of form of late since her defeat to Taylor Townsend at the US Open.  There was a surprise loss to Sonay Kartal in Beijing followed by a loss to Laura Siegemund in her opening match in Wuhan.  It was the same story unfortunately in Ningbo as she lost surprisingly to the resurgent Lin Zhu, a player she had beaten comfortably a few weeks earlier.

That left the door open wide to Paolini and Rybakina and they grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Paolini followed up her great run to the semi finals in Wuhan by reaching the semi finals again thanks to wins over Kudermetova and a battling win over Bencic.

Her opponent?  Elena Rybakina who followed up a tough win over Yastremska with a comfortable win over Tomljanovic.  By this stage Paolini had already passed Andreeva in the race but Rybakina still had a lot of work to do and realistically had to win the title in Ningbo.  She did just that, beating Paolini comfortably and overcoming Alexandrova in the final despite losing the 1st set.

Andreeva was not scheduled to play the following week but with her place at the Tour Finals in jeopardy, would she change her mind and take a late wild card?  Apparently not....  So Paolini was now officially qualified for the Tour Finals and qualification is now entirely in Rybakina's hands.  Two wins in Tokyo will be enough to get her there.

One woman who stands in her way, quite neatly for the purposes of this blog, is a certain Leylah Fernandez who will be Rybakina's 2nd Round opponent in Tokyo.  Leylah was the champ at the end of an entertaining week at the 250 event in Osaka last week.

The favourite for the title had been Naomi Osaka playing in her home city and the city that bears her name.  Frustratingly for Naomi she picked up an injury right at the end of a battling 2nd Round win over Suzanne Lamens and ended up spending her birthday in the hospital before withdrawing from her quarter final with the Romanian Jacqueline Cristian.

One player making waves this week was Teresa Valentova, the 17 year old Czech, who is attracting a lot of attention this year. Valentova trounced both Eala and Mertens before showing she had battling qualities too, coming from behind to beat Danilovic and Cristian to reach the semi final.

Fernandez dropped just one set en route to the final (to Sorana Cirstea in the semi final) and she looked on course to romp to the title winning the first set 6-0 against her less experienced opponent. But Valentova showed her fighting qualities once again bouncing back to win the 2nd set before Leylah saw the match out in a 6-3 third set winning her 5th WTA title and 2nd of this year. 

Next up Brussels.  Felix Auger Aliassime os having a phenomenal end to the season and has put himself right back in the chase for the ATP Finals.  A run to the semi final at the US Open set him firmly back on track in the rankings and he followed that up with a run to the quarter finals in Shanghai beating race rival Musetti in the process. 

With Musetti falling in the Quarter Final to Mpetshi Perricard, the opportunity presented itself for Felix to make up even more points in the race. He nearly stumbled in his opening 2nd Round match to Dzumhur but made no mistake against qualifier Spizzirri or wild card Collignon in the semi final.

That set up a final with Jiri Lehecka and it turned into a heck of a battle. But after two shared tie breaks, Felix proved too strong in the 3rd set and managed to further close the gap on Musetti in the race. With big points on offer in Basel and Paris, FAA has every chance.

Two other players who we are used to seeing at tour finals are Daniil Medvedev and Casper Ruud.  It hasn't been the best of seasons for either of them but both have had a bit of a resurgence in form of late and are not entirely out of the running for a place at the Tour Finals or at the very least an alternate spot.

Casper featured in Stockholm where his main rival would be a familiar foe in fellow Scandinavian Holger Rune. Tragedy struck for Holger in the semi finals as he picked up an awful injury while a set up to Ugo Humbert in the semi finals and that unfortunately has ended not only his chances of reaching the tour finals but his entire season.

Ruud had been on fine form all week defeating Cilic, Korda and Shapovalov en route to the final with Humbert and Casper was awesome in the final raising his game to a level that Humbert could just not compete with. The Norwegian triumphed 6-2, 6-3 moving himself up to 11th in the race rankings (effectively 10th with Draper out for the season)

And in Almaty, Daniil Medvedev finally got back to the winners stage after a long hiatus.  The signs have been there in recent weeks as Medvedev's level has definitely improved as he navigates the tennis world with new coach Thomas Johansson.  Semi final runs in Beijing and Shanghai showed that Medvedev was on the right track despite frustrating defeats at both these events.

In Almaty he got the win his recent play deserved.  He had to work hard for it, coming from behind to beat James Duckworth in the semi final and another three setter was required in what turned out to be a thrilling final against the talented Frenchman Corentin Moutet.   This run may have come to late to restore Medvedev back to the top 10 but if he still has some running in those legs, the points are still available to him to stage an unlikely bit to restore his place at the top table. Medvedev is currently 13th now but effectively 11th with Rune and Draper out!

Here is the Global League Table for the week

Congratulations to our game week winner - Return of the Champion  (Kazz)

Kazz dominated the game week for the most part but Ultimate Zverev Hater and Surprise Surprise mounted a significant challenge in the latter stages.

Here is the game week winning team.

This was a terrific game week team with some key differentials which gave them a decent advantage over the best of the rest. Crucially Kaz had Ningbo winner Rybakina as Captain,  Osaka winner Leylah Fernandez as a key player and Brussels runner up Lehecka as a key player.  Perfect player placement.

But the whole team weighed in with valuable points by winning two or three matches.  Picks like GMP, Humbert and Shnaider were more unusual picks that more than played their part.

The battle for the level 2 prize was between Ultimate Zverev Hater and Surprise Surprise.

Here is the head to head between the two teams.

Congrats to these two teams on a great game week.   Ultimate Zverev Hater backed Medvedev as their captain and that proved to be an inspired choice.  They also had the two Brussels finalists as KPs and the two Ningbo finalists as team players. A pretty solid team with only Musetti under performing.

Player placement might have cost Surprise Surprise a few points.  Brussels champ FAA and Osaka champ Fernandez were team players while kps Humbert and Michelsen didn't score as highly.  But a team of 8 with 3 champions and two runners up is a pretty amazing week by any standards.    

FTL Cup Final (Game Week 32)

 

FTL Cup Final 2025

The final of the FTL Cup will be played in Game Week 32.

It features Nadal's Forehand (Dragan Josifoski) who are still in with a great chance for a historic league and cup double.

And

Rydal 250 Sponsor's Exemption (Eric Zoberman and Michael Sommer)

Here is the tale of the tape so far with some pointless facts and figures!

Rydal have scored more points across the 9 matches so far outscoring Nadal's Forehand by 317 points.

Both sides lost their 2nd Group Stage Match with Nadal's Forehand losing to Petrarca Trionfi (Evan Dersio who went on to win the group) and Rydal losing to Acehammer. (Demy Kunst)

One team has had misfortune to lose to both of them. Lucky Losers AU (Brigitte Kramer) lost to Rydal in the Group Stage and then to Nadal's Forehand in the knockout stage!

A great cup run from both teams. Looking forward to seeing how the final pans out. Does either side have a joker up their sleeve? can Eric and Michael take advantage of Dragan's focus on the league to bolster their squad for that game week?

The race for FTL Supremacy

 

The race for FTL supremacy is now down to the last few weeks.

Dragan Josifoski (Nadal's Forehand) lead the way with a commanding 153 points lead over Alex (Broccoli).

Силви Георгиев (FC Izrodite), Mat Mrmd (new calc aces), Nikhil Idnani (nbladeweilder) make up the rest of the top 5.

Here are how the Game Week 31 teams look.

With few differentials likely to be in play in the remaining game weeks, it will be difficult for the chasing pack to make up ground but not impossible.

For instance if Medvedev has another great week and Shelton flops then Alex could make up ground. Силви Георгиев has 4 differentials on Dragan so could make up some serious points if fortune favours him this week.

What we don't know is the amount of trades each team has left. But the squads all looks strong to play out the remainder of the season with just a handful of trades. Any withdrawals or retirements this week could also change things up.

Dragan remains on course for a historic league and cup double with the cup returning in Game Week 32.