MIAMI FINAL RESULTS

 A massive kuddos goes out to our Miami Masters 1000 winners this week - Daniil Medvedev and Petra Kvitova.  Interestingly enough neither of these players had ever fared exceptionally well in Miami, so their victories werent the easiest to see coming.

Daniil Medvedev is playing soo well at the moment, it hasnt seemed to matter what type of hard court that he's playing on as he's now made 5 straight finals! (it hasnt been done in nearly 50 years - Ivan Lendl).  In some of those events, he had to face a murderers row in order to make the final, but this wasnt one of those occassions.  In fact, the only top 50 player that he faced on the way to the final was Khachanov in the SF, and to be honest, he wasn't exactly impressive out there.  Sadly Jannik Sinner was sick in the final, and although he put forth his best effort, the final never felt much in doubt to be honest.

Petra Kvitova's victory is truly special.  She may not have faced a top 5 player at any point on her way to the title, but there wasnt a single match where you didnt think that her opponent didn't have a legit chance to beat her.  She beat a rising Czech star (Linda Noskova), 3 players playing at incredibly high levels at the moment (Donna Vekic, Varvara Gracheva and Sorana Cirstea) and an uber dangerous Ekaterina Alexandrova just to reach the final.  In the final, she beat the hottest player on tour, Elena Rybakina, who may not be listed as a top 5 player, but if her Wimbledon victory counted towards her ranking, she'd be ranked 3rd, and is 1st in the WTA Race.  I'll be honest, the match she played in the Final was the best match that I can recall her ever playing.  She served 76% and hit more than double the number of Winners to Unforced Errors.  The 1st Set Tiebreak that her and Rybakina played left everyone at the edge of their seats - both players had multiple Set Points, but Kvitova came thru when it mattered most and won it 16-14. 

I'd like to throw out a couple more shoutouts to Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz for their incredible SF.  There was some sloppy moments, but the point of the year will definitely come from that match.  Alcaraz looked dead on his feet in the 3rd set, but that didnt change the fact that it was exceptional to watch.  Elena Rybakina had another exceptional result, and might have completed the Sunshine Double if she won the 1st Set Tiebreak against Petra in the final.  She didnt seem to have her best game all week, so her making the final took some real doing. 

In terms of FTL, we had one of the most dominant victories in quite some time by the team of Michael Sommer and Eric Zoberman (Rydal 250 Sponsor Exemption).  Its pretty rare that you win a Game Week by 50+ points but they did so.  Hell there were only 3 teams that managed to be within 100 points of them! Not only did they have all 4 finalists, but they also had Alcaraz make the SF.  It sounds funny to say this, but their Captain (Alcaraz) losing to their KP (Sinner) was actually adventageous to them in terms of their point differential for the week.  They didnt have Iga Swiatek on their roster (salary cap related), so her withdrawing was definitely beneficial to them as well

 

Jamie Edmundson (The Umpire Strikes Back), Sagar Chowdry (Goaldies), and Robyn Brailey (Thanks But No Shanks) were the only managers that finished within 100 points of our winner.