FTL Cup Final

 

Its taken 9 rounds of fixtures to get here but the FTL Cup Final has arrived and there are only two teams left standing.  Its Melissa's Swift Team versus Tomasz's Yet Again!

Swift Team (Melissa) have Rybakina, Zverev and Shnaider as differentials.

Yet Again (Tomasz) have Humbert, Hurkacz and Shelton.

Tomasz has put Rybakina and Zverev as ERs which could be inspired and could be crazy. We'll see how it pans out.

Good luck to both!

First strike comes from Tomasz as Hubi completes a comeback win over Bergs. Leylah has put some provisional points on the table for Melissa from the ER1 spot providing some back up if we do have any withdrawals.

FTL League Standings

 

We're very much into the closing stages of another tremendous (albeit frequently infuriating) FTL season and realistically it all comes down to a straight shoot out between the top two in the standings - Team LeTournaeu (Sindre) and Goaldies (Sagar).

Sindre and Sagar have FTL pedigree and have been consistent performers over the years so its no surprise to see the two of them at the top of the standings.

Everyone in the top 10 can be proud of a great FTL season but it does seem now that the top two are now out of sight of the chasing pack.

But can Goaldies close the gap in what's left of the season?

This week its almost a case of "great minds think alike" as they have almost identical teams.

From the outset there was only one difference - Alexandrova for Team Le Tourneau and Cobolli for Goaldies but the withdrawal of Iga has given Sindre another small gain as his ER1 Eala outscored Mertens who was ER1 for Sagar.  

Alexandrova also has points on the table and her win over Kostyuk puts her in a strong position this week.  Sagar is also benefitting from Alexsndrova points momentarily as his ER2 but those points will drop of when Cobolli plays so more than ever he really needs Flavio to turn up this week - not something we can often rely on.

So its advantage Sindre in the overall standings and in this game week so far but there are still a few twists and turns to come and the number of trades each have left in reserve could prove pivotal!!

Game Week 29 roundup

 

One of the many quandries to plague FTL managers is what to do with players when they win a big event and are then playing again the following week.

Do you decide that they will continue to ride the wave and play them again in a Captain or Key Player role or do you relegate them to a TP spot or even the bench because you believe they'll be tired after their exertions.

I guess there are many factors - the player involved, the efforts involved in winning the first event and the timing in the season.

This week very much fell into the give them a rest category!!

Beijing winner Novak Djokovic can be forgiven I guess - the man's just about to enter his 5th decade on this earth!  So it was no surprise that the quick turnaround from winning in Beijing was too much for him and he fell to Hurkcacz in his opening 2nd round match.

Tokyo winner Alcaraz faired a little better winning match before falling to a surprise defeat to Zizou Bergs!

And WTA Beijing finalists Mirra Andreeva and Qinwen Zheng didn't even bother turning up after their great runs to the final in the Chinese capital but unfortunately most of us this new only came after lockout and Mirra was already locked into many team with Qinwen chosen as a dark horse for most!

Qinwen was a potential 2nd round opponent for Aryna Sabalenka but with Aryna's recent poor form many were undeterred and picked Qinwen anyway.  Would Qinwen's absence be a blessing for Sabalenka - nope - she ended up losing to Ann Li in her opening match and her sketchy form continued,

Many of us bemoaned the lack of other dark horse option for Wuhan.  Turns out there were some cracking options.  In fact three of the four semi finalists - Maja Chwalinska, Sonay Kartal and Jelena Ostapenko were dark horse eligible!!

So with the semi final lineup of Swiatek (still chasing a tour finals spot) versus Chwalinska and Sonay Kartal versus Ostapenko, the tennis supporting world were licking their lips at the prospect of a showdown between Iga and Penko and a potential extension of that most remarkable of head to head records which currently stands at 6-0 to Penko!!  But Maja and Sonay had not read the script!

Iga was physically compromised in her match and her bid for the tour finals crumbled as her good friend and compatriot Chwalinska took full advantage of Iga's restricted mobility to score a massive win.  

Meanwhile Ostapenko played a pretty damn good match and normally when that happens - she wins.... but somehow Kartal hung with her in both sets and when it came to the crunch points, Ostapenko fluffed her lines.  Only she knows how she managed to lose that mach but at the same time it was testament to the great tennis and unbothered attitude of Kartal who was putting a great tournament together so soon after returning from injury. 

And it was Kartal who was out the blocks quicker in the final as she confidently outplayed and outhit Chwalinska in the opening set.  But Maja was making Sonay working and she did that even more effectively in the 2nd set, moving her from side to side and cheekily from front to back with some skillful drop shot - lob combos.  She wore Kartal down and turned the match around in her favour. Another massive milestone in what has been an incredible season for Maja who is now right on the tails of her more esteemed compatriot in the overall rankings.

The men's event delivered some semi final surprises as well. Davidovich Fokina scored a terrific win over the new no 1 elect Alexander Zverev while Rafael Jodar boosted his Tour Final chances with an impressive win over Daniil Medvedev. 

So we had an all Spanish final in Shanghai between two men who are having the year of their lives.  Jodar looked in control taking the first set 6-1 and was a break up in set 2 but ADF hung in there - broke back immediately and managed to turn the match his way.  Things are looking up for ADF since he got married - always the nearly man in 2025, he was runner up in 4 finals in his bid to win his first ATP final.  But this year he had already won two finals at 250 level before now he secured his first at 1000 level.  Just incredible.  And as for Jodar, its still all going in the right direction in his remarkable breakout year as he stands on the cusp of a place in the year end top 8,  If only he could be nicer to ball kids!!  

Here are the global FTL Standings

Massive congrats to Sasha Sheremet who finished top of the pile this week.

Sasha had a terrific team.  Picked exactly the right DH in Chwalinska.  He had semi finalists Zverev, Medvedev and Swiatek and lucked out with Jodar as his first ER - Rafa proved to be a more than adequate replacement for Andreeva when she withdrew from Wuhan.  

Level 2 honours got to Slice and Swarm (Jere Alwin) with Jamie Edmunson (The Umpire Strikes Back the closest challenger)

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

Both teams had Wuhan winner Chwalinska as dark horse but having Jodar as a key player proved to be t he key differential for Slice & Swarm.   

Congrats to Jere on winning the game week prize for Game Week 29!!

FTL Cup Final (to be played in Game Week 31)

 S

The FTL Cup final is set after the completion of two enthralling semi finals this game week. 

Semi final 1

What a battle.

Swift Team makes the final at the expense of Vlad the Macedonian but both Melissa and Vlad had a fantastic week finishing well up the Leaderboard.

That was largely thanks to both of them picking Maja Chwalinska as their dark horse. Maja has just taken the WTA1000 title in Wuhan.

In a contest where Vlad was off to the worst start losing Rublev and Djokovic early on, he worked his way back into it and looked favourite to win it when it when he had Iga left and Melissa had Jodar. But the semi finals flipped the script and Iga went down to Chwalinska and Jodar defeated Medvedev.

Jodar couldn't quite get the title in Shanghai but he'd done enough to win the tie for Melissa.

Congrats Melissa.

Semi final 2

The 2nd semi final was fought out a little further down the table but for a while it was also a contest which was very much in the balance.

The loss of Jovic and ER Fritz put paid to the remaining hope for Kalinin-out-Burger (Jeremy Parrish)

It was in fact the ER of Tomasz K who made all the difference. Daniil Medvedev came into the equation after the withdrawals of Gauff and Andreeva and while he only made the semi final, that was enough to secure the tie.

Congrats to Yet Again and Tomasz on reaching the final!

Monthly Standings for September

 Monthly standings for September

It was another close run battle with Violet just pipping Mikhail and Vladimir to the top spot!  Congrats on the monthly win Violet!!

Here is the breakdown by Game Week

FTL Cup semi finals update

 

Its been another week of FTL destruction - i feel like a broken record saying that now but where do that leave our two FTL Cup ties?

There were plenty of differentials at the outset of the match between Vlad the Macedonian and Swift Team but the vast majority of them have already tumbled. Vlad's hopes are now entirely dependent on Iga Swiatek while Melissa still has Elina Svitolina and Rafael Jodar to count on.

There's only 5 points separating the two teams for the next match ups will be crucial.  For Vlad, Iga is next up against Ashlyn Krueger and has a seemingly favourable draw for the next few rounds.   Meanwhile, Swift Team have Svitolina against Hanyu Guo in Wuhan and Jodar against Ruud in the Shanghai Quarter Final.  Its too close to call!

The match between Kalin-out Burger and Yet Again is similarly closely matched and again the differentials have tumbled like drunk dominoes.

Its down to Iva Jovic for Jeremy versus Daniil Medvedev for Tomasz. Tomasz currently has a 10 point lead and the benefit of having Iga in a KP spot so the odds are in his favour right now.

Iva Jovic will play Maja Chwalinska next while Medvedev will face Tommy Paul.  Can they both progress further?

Still all to play for!

Game Week 28 Roundup

 

Here are the results for Game Week 28 (i'll get round to doing an extended roundup at some point!)

ATP Beijing   -  

Novak picked up where he left off all those years ago and continued his unbeaten streak in the Chinese capital.  In slightly strange circumstances.  Medvedev was defaulted in his semi final with Djokovic for hitting a spectator with a ball, admittedly Novak was on the verge of victory.  And in the final, he only required a set as De Minaur retired hurt.  But nothing can take away from a remarkable week from Novak who continues his record of winning a tournament every season since.....i dunno....time immemorial! 

ATP Tokyo

Carlos was the Tokyo champ. He took down Jiri Lehecka in straight sets in the final.

WTA Beijing

And what a story in the 1000 event in Beijing.  The Queen is back!!  Qinwen wins her first 1000 title on home soil defeating Mirra Andreeva in the final!

Here is the Level 2 FTL table 

Again the top of the standings was incredibly tight with just 7 points separating Dirty Jerzey (Mathew Markman), Austin3:16 (Bhanu Prabhakar) and (New Cal Aces)   Mat Mermoud 

Here is the head to head with the top two 

Bhanu actually had all 3 champs in Qinwen .Zheng, Alcaraz and Djokovic  while Mathew only had Alcaraz and Qinwen.  However Matthew's choice of Alcaraz as Captain and a decent return from Elise Mertens were enough to pip the game week. 

Congrats Matthew, Bhanu and Mat on a great week.  Congrats also to Sasha Sheremet with Ternopil who finished 2nd to Matthew in the Global standings.