Game Week 9 was one of those game weeks that I love in FTL. 5 tournaments taking place across 4 continents with so many different options to choose from but also forcing managers to dig deep into their rosters with many of the top players absent.
Charleston was definitely the most stacked draw of all the events taking place this week and the top players really rose to the occasion with the semi finals being contested by the top 4 seeds, Pegula, Bencic, Jabeur and Kasatkina. In the end it was Ons Jabeur who triumphed over Bencic in a reversal of the 2022 final.
The ATP Houston event had a dismal time with the rain and didn't really get going until Saturday with Rd16 and QF matches being played on Saturday and Semi and Final played on the Sunday. Frances Tiafoe won his first title in 5 years (surprisingly) defeating the talented Argentinian Etcheverry.
In Bogota Tatjana Maria retained her title with a win over exciting US youngster Peyton Stearns. In Estoril Casper Ruud showed signs of a return to form by winning his first title of the year against good friend Miomir Kecmanovic. And in Marrakech it was one of the lesser owned players Roberto Carballes Baena who prevailed over Alexander Muller (who did have quite a few backers this week)
A massive congratulations to Ess Ng who won Game Week 9 with a great score of 466.85 points. The spine of their team and the key to success was the TP quartet of Jabeur, Bencic, Pegula and Kasatkina who all made the semi finals in Charleston. Captain Tiafoe helped to seal the weekly win by winning four matches in 2 days in Houston.
CooCoo 4 Coco Gauffs took 2nd place in the game week. They also had Houston winner Tiafoe and had a great pick with Bogota runner up Peyton Stearns while also getting good points from Badosa, Keys and Pegula.
Gary Dadey took 3rd place with Captain Tiafoe and KP Jabeur both accumulating more than 100 points for him!
Congrats also to Sebastian Kromberg, Rafaelle Perron, Cleeve Carolissen, Sonja Kessens, Tony Aligianis and Davide Giulietti who all accumulated more than 400 points in this game week.
I was really pulling for Stearns there. And kicking myself for not brining her into my team a few weeks ago!
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