The week after a Slam, especially one where there's a change of surface is always tricky - this week proved no different as everywhere you looked a top notch player lost early regardless of where the event was being played. Its hard to imagine saying this but there was only one player (Veronika Kudermetova) that was a top 2 seed in their event that won more than a single match! With that being said, I'd like to offer a huge congratulations to our 4 event winners (Frances Tiafoe, Tallon Griekspoor, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Katie Boulter) this week.
With Tiafoe's victory this week in Stuttgart, he entered the top 10 in the ATP's rankings for the first time in his career. Tiafoe has been an enigma for years, as every time he looks good (which is often btw) everyone wonders why he's never been ranked inside the top 10, and the next thing you know, he looks unfocused and sprays errors and loses to virtually anyone. Tiafoe played only 1 seeded player (Lorenzo Musetti) on his way to winning his first career title on grass, but that didnt mean that his victory came easily. In fact, he was forced to play 4 sets where his opponent had a chance to close him out. Tiafoe's victory over Struff in the final is something that's going to be tough for Jan Lennard to swallow to be honest as he was looking for his maiden ATP Tour level title and never got broken.
Tallon Griekspoor won on home soil (S-hert) for his 2nd career ATP Tour level win (both have happened this year). Tallon has struggled with injuries for most of the season since his great run in Rotterdam (another home soil event), so it was nice to see him look right again. As a result of his victory, he's now ranked inside the top 30 for the first time in career. The question for him is can he continue to play this type of level outside of home. It will be interesting to see how he does in Halle this week - he should win his R1 match.
Ekaterina Alexandrova won the womens event in S-Hert, in an absolutely incredible final against fellow country woman Veronika Kudermetova. Kudermetova won the first set, and had chances to win the 2nd set, but eventually lost in a 3rd set tiebreak to Ekaterina. Alexandrova has been an extremely talented player for a few years now, but has always struggled with nerves especially in the big moments of big matches n big events, so it was nice to see her come thru when it mattered most in the final today. Ekaterina wasn't dominant on her road to the final, but she still hadn't lost a set. Have to wonder if this will be a sign of things to come? She's got a brutal draw in Berlin, so lets see what happens.
Katie Boulter won her maiden WTA Tour Level event of her career this week in Nottingham. I'd like to tell you that she played the who's who on her way to doing so, but I cant (there wasnt a single seeded player that made the QF) - She literally didnt beat a single player ranked inside the top 125 the entire week. With that being said, you can only beat the player across the net from you. Its hard to believe that she beat 4 fellow Brits (Appleton, Dart, Watson and Burrage) on the way to her victory. Her ranking is now up to a career high, 77. She's in a very doable section of the Birmingham draw, so it will be interesting to see if she can continue with this type of form.
In terms of FTL, it was an absolute massacre for most of the managers this week. In fact, 2 of our admin - Jer and Jeremy, didnt manage to amass 100 points for the entire week. In a typical week, a winner of an event is often owned by 50+ players, but this week the 4 winners were owned by 53 managers - Tiafoe (18), Alexandrova (20), Griekspoor (13), Boulter (2)
Laurie Comtois (Bibous) won her first ever GameWeek this week. She amassed an incredible 345 points - To put it into perspective, our overall leader, Robyn, only picked up 187 points! She only had 1 winner (Alexandrova), but Emil Ruusuvuori and Alize Cornet reaching the Semi's was more than enough for her to come away with the victory. She had the GW won before the Finals even started, and ended up with a 20+ point victory.
Anthony (Alcarazian Domination), Andrew Doyle (Mussetti's Spaghetti) were the only 2 managers that were able to be within 25 points of our victor. Andrew was the only manager that had 2 winners (Griekspoor and Tiafoe)
