ROME RESULTS

The Rome Masters 1000 tends to be a great harbinger of things to come for the French Open in just a few days.  The list of players that have won Rome in both the ATP and WTA tends to be the who's who of clay court tennis.  

 

If you told me that Daniil Medvedev and Elena Rybakina were going to be added to the list this year, I would have suggested that you were suffering from crazy dillusions and you had taken too many real strong pain killers lol.  

 

I will be honest, I traded out Rybakina this week (she has looked injured the past few weeks) and placed Medvedev as an Emergency Replacement, and I can tell you for certain that I wasnt the only one that did something similar.

 

Rybakina has had a sensational season, as she's reached 4 of the biggest finals of the season (AO, IW, Miami and Rome), but hasnt looked right since she got hurt in Stuttgart just a few weeks ago.  Her victory was aided by 3 players (Kalinskaya, Swiatek, Kalinina) retiring midmatch.  I'm not telling you that she doesn't win without any of those players being forced to retire, but I can tell you for certain that not one of those matches was going to be an easy Win (Especially Swiatek on her fave surface).  Rybakina's victory may have huge ramifications for the French Open, as she's now ranked 4th, and I'll be honest, I'm not sure who's happier about that fact, herself, or Swiatek, Sabalenka or Pegula.  I am sure that all 3 of them are very happy that they will not have to face Rybakina going forward until at least the SF of a big event.

Medvedev winning a clay court Masters is something that I am not sure even himself saw coming.  Medvedev's game has vastly improved on the dirt over the years, but he had NEVER won a match in Rome before this week.  His victory this week adds to an already crazy record where he's now won 20 events and not one of them has he won more than once!  Medvedev's victory this week is also incredibly important for the French Open as he's now ranked ahead of Djokovic and will be seeded 2nd at the French.

When giving kuddos to players, its hard to only give it to the winner in a Masters event.  Anhelina Kalinina may have been forced to retire midmatch against Rybakina in the Final (after she twisted her ankle), but that doenst mean that she didnt have a sensational week.  She beat 3 seeds (Kudermetova, Haddad Maia, Keys) and a former Slam Champ (Kenin) along the way to reaching the final.  Her ranking jumped 20+ spots and she'll now be ranked 25th for the French.  Holger Rune continues his incredible play on the dirt over the past few weeks.  He may have lost to Medvedev, but its hard to look past his 2 victories over top 5 players (Ruud and Djokovic).

In FTL action, one of our GOATs showed that altho he's truly struggling this season that maybe just maybe, we shouldn't look past him for the remainder of the season.  Vlad (Rafa) had a truly special week and won the ROME GameWeek going away.  He amassed a ridiculous 662.9 points and had all 4 mens SemiFinalists.  He even selected Borna Coric as his Dark Horse.  Its kinda funny saying this, but his worst pick of the week was making Carlos Alcaraz his captain lol. Im sorry but what was he thinking?!?!  Carlos only had a record of 30-2 coming into the week  (massive sarcasm)

Jere Alwin (Slice & Swarm) finished 2nd, but was never really in contention for the win.  He was one of the few managers to have both winners, hell he even did one better and had Rune also make the finals.  Sadly for him, he had 2 players lose their first match of the week (Pegula and Sabalenka) and it wasnt something his team could overcome!

I'd like to give another shoutout to our 3rd place finisher, Vicki (Carlitos' Way).  She finished 52 points out of first, but still had a sensational week.  Sadly her Dark Horse selections were the nail in her coffin, as between the 2 of them, they barely accumulated 25 points!.  Regardless, its still Vicki's best result of her FTL Career, so its definitely something to celebrate.  (not going to lie, I'm real happy for her)