Please note that the Lockout for MonteCarlo was set initially for Monday, but when the OOP was posted earlier today, 3 Main Draw matches will take place on Sunday, so the Lockout has been updated accordingly.
Do not forget that the Dark Horse Category comes into play this week as well.
There is only one event in Game Week 10 - the Monte Carlo Masters. And there have been quite a few high profile withdrawals. Rafa Nadal is still not ready to make a return to the tour and Alcaraz also withdrew through injury but seems to be on the mend and should return in Barcelona.
Other withdawals include Canadian pair FAA and Shapo. PCB, Korda and Monfils are still out with injury and the most recent withdrawal is Tommy Paul who is still waiting to take the court in the washed out Houston event. Surprisingly Tiafoe who is also in Houston is still in the draw but expect to see him withdraw if he progresses through his two matches today.
World Number 1, Novak Djokovic returns to the tour after being unable to play in the US but at 25 million he would be an expensive addition to your side.
The FTL CUP Draw (Single Elimination) is available on the mainsheet. Plz note that every manager that won their Group Stage has received a R1 bye.
I've always found that the best time to start looking at the Overall Leaderboard is after the Sunshine Double. Its a good barometer for where you stand after 8 weeks, as we've been through a Slam, a couple of Masters Events and a couple of small Game Weeks as well.
Interestingly enough, our leader (by 86 points) is Graham M (Metty's Marvels). He came into Miami with the lead, and walked out of it with it as well. He had a 16th place result in Miami and was 14th month for the Month of March. He's been involved in FTL every year since the onset, but has never finished inside the top 40, could this be his year?!?!
Aoun (Fedex Superstars) moved up 3 spots and now sits in 2nd. He was 5th in Miami and was 7th for the month of March. He finished inside the top 10 last year for the first time, could he finish the deal this season?
Marc Sab (The Champs) continues to sit in 3rd (102 points back). He was 12th in Miami and was 2nd for the month of March. He's been a top 20 manager for years, maybe this will be the year that he seals the deal.
Tricia (PREPARE FOR CZECH MATE) moved up 2 places and now sits in 4th. She was 20th in Miami and was 12th for the month of March. She's finished 2nd in back to back seasons. Forever a bridesmaid and never a bride. Will that change?
Robyn (Thanks But No Shanks) is our biggest mover inside the top 10 as she moved up 10 spots and now sits 6th. She was 3rd in Miami and 10th for the Month.
There is a little less than 30 weeks left in the season, so there is still ample time for massive changes in the Overall Standings. Never forget it only takes 1 great week to completely change your standing inside it.
The month of March only consists of 2 Game Weeks - the Sunshine Double. It tends to be a very difficult time period as its getting rarer and rarer that a player performs incredibly well during both Masters events. There are only a handful of players that have ever won the Sunshine Double on both tours (most of them have retired btw). Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina looked like they had a real opportunity to be added to that list, but just couldn't get it done in the end.
In terms of FTL, the final March Results was decided by less than 10 points as Pete Schaumann (Bullseye) amassed an incredible 1477 points and won the Month. He finished 2nd at Indian Wells and 10th in Miami. Something crazy happened along the way in order for him to get the win though. He selected Iga Swiatek as his captain and once she withdrew, his Emergency Replacement (Zapata Miralles) that was set to come in retired during his first round match, so his ER2 came into play (Tommy Paul). If Zapata Miralles completes his match (he was legit injured btw), Pete doesnt win the month!
Marc Sab (The Champs) finished second. He had an exceptional month as well - he won Indian Wells and finished 12th this week.
Sadly neither of these managers were involved in Option 2, so Jamie Edmundson (The Umpire Strikes Back) who finished 3rd (16 points back) will collect the spoils :)
Btw our Miami Winner - Rydal 250 Sponsor Exemption moved up a ridiculous 64 places and finished inside the top 10 (9th)
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.
Congratulations to all the group winners in the FTL Cup.
You will all receive a bye to the 2nd knockout round and the top 32 performers will also have the privilege of being seeded according to their number of wins and total point score.
Our top 8 seeds are:
1. Marc Sab
2. Martin Hofmann
3. Muhammad Aoun Abbas
4. Robyn Brailey
5. Silvi
6. Dragan Josifoski
7. Jamie Edmundson
8. Matthew Markman
There are 5 events next week taking place across the globe. It must be the only week where we have events in 4 continents.
Here are the draws for:
ATP Houston
ATP Estoril
ATP Marrakech
WTA Charleston 500
WTA Bogota will be added when available.
We now have all the draws for Game Week 28. The events taking place this week are: ATP Chengdu ATP Hangzhou WTA Hua Hin WTA Seoul Remember ...
