It's been a long time coming but 19 year old Coco Gauff has finally taken the first big step in her fledgling career and won her first slam, coming back from a set down against new World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win the US Open title. That might seem like a contradiction in terms but its now 4 years since Coco captured global attention when she defeated Venus Williams at Wimbledon at the tender age of 15. 4 years where experts predicted world domination and where Coco was fully in the glare of the media spotlight.
She handled it pretty well to be fair, establishing herself as a solid top 10 player but the major titles eluded her and weaknesses in her game (notably an inconsistent forehand) meant that she struggled to compete with the women at the very top of the game. The defeat to Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon was perhaps the sign that something finally needed to change.
As the tour moved to America, Coco changed her coaching set up bringing in Spanish Coach Pere Riba and veteran coach Brad Gilbert for his tactical know how. The results were immediate. She was playing with more confidence and her forehand looked more secure. She won her biggest title to date in Washington (500), just came up short at the 1000 in Montreal against Pegula but then won her first 1000 title in Cincinnati beating Swiatek in the semi final and Muchova in the final.
All of a sudden Coco was being talked about as a contender for the US Open and many FTL managers picked up on it with Coco the 8th top pick for the US Open. However it wasn't to be straightforward for her with the veteran German Laura Siegemund using her net skills to disrupt Coco and very nearly send her packing in the first round. Further tough battles were to follow with Elise Mertens and the returning Caroline Wozniacki who had an excellent tournament.
Meanwhile the tournament received its first big upset from an unlikely source as Jelena Ostapenko extended her remarkable winning run over Iga Swiatek in the 4th Round brining Iga's reign as World Number One to an end. It was a stunning performance from Penko but when it came to the Quarter Final with Coco, the scheduling seemed to affect her, and after the fireworks of a nightime match against Iga, she seemed to lack energy and drive and lost pretty tamely to Gauff in a lunchtime quarter final 2 days later.
A solid win over Karolina Muchova set Coco up for a final against Aryna Sabalenka who somehow managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Madison Keys who at one point led (6-0, 5-3).
Aryna blew Coco away in the first set but Coco stuck to the plan, showing remarkable defensive skills to chase everything down and make Aryna play as many balls as possible. It worked. Aryna started to feel the pressure from the crowd and the pressure that her opponent was putting her under and started to leak mistakes. Coco managed to take the 2nd set and by the time we moved into the third set, there was only one winner. Sabalenka was clearly frustrated with another slam that she let slip from her grasp but she can be proud of an outstanding season in the slams which helped her to climb to top of the rankings. With four different winners of the slamsthis year, we definitely have exciting times ahead in women's tennis.
And what of the men's event? A repeat of the French Open and Wimbledon finals between Alcaraz and Djokovic seemed inevitable especially after they played out another thriller in the Cincinnati Masters final with Djokovic turning the tables on his young Spanish adversary.
Both had massive ownership of FTL with Alcaraz top dog with 89.4% of level 1 teams owning him while Novak was owned by 76.8%. Notably, however, Novak was captained by nearly twice as many teams as Alcaraz perhaps a consequence of that Cincinnati win and a realisation that the 36 year old champ still had the fire and energy to add to his Grand Slam trophy haul.
A couple of players hadn't read the script however.
It was a biblical parting of the waves on Novak's side of the draw with 4th seed Rune exiting in the 1st Round and Ruud and Tsitsipas tumbling out in the next round. Novak's route through the tournament suddenly seemed pretty straightforward but he was to receive a huge wake up call in the 3rd Round as his fellow Serb Laslo Djere took a 2 set lead in their 3rd Round match sparking talk of a massive upset. Novak admitted that he had to have a serious talk with himself and managed to turn the match around.
It was smooth progress after that for Novak. He saw off the big serving Gojo, brushed aside Fritz and slammed the phone down on Shelton and for the third time in his career he had managed to make the final of all four calendar slams.
Meanwhile Alcaraz was moving through the draw with minimal fuss. Evans took a set off him in a fun 3rd Round match but he had no problems coasting through the draw to set up a Quarter Final tie with Zverev. Zverev had come through a tough 5 set battle with Sinner in the previous round so it was understandable that after a tight first set, he struggled to challenge his young Spanish opponent and Alcaraz notched up another straight sets win to set up a semi final with 2021 US Open winner Medvedev.
Pundits and fans alike predicted that Alcaraz would triumph and set up another mouth watering tie with Djokovic but in retrospect there was a criminal lack of respect for Medvedev who had of course won the US open title before and who has a remarkable record on hard courts. Medvedev put in what he described as a 12 out of 10 performance to turn the tables on his young Spanish opponent. Alcaraz may look back on the match and rue the fact that he didn't take the chances he had in the 1st set but ultimately it will go down as another learning experience for him and one which will make him stronger.
So could Medvedev repeat his 2021 US Open win over Novak? He certainly gave it his best shot. In the 2nd set, Novak seemed to be visibly struggling with the extended points and Medvedev seemed to be growing in confidence. But somehow Novak managed to force a tie break and ultimately close out the set and Meddy's challenge was effectively over. Novak had secured his 4th US Open title, his 3rd Grand Slam title of a remarkable year and most importantly the 24th Grand Slam title of his career. Just incredible statistics from a sporting giant.
FTL results
Predictably this was going to be a game week of massive scores. Indeed - exactly 50 teams in the Global League cleared 1000 points! If you were to be anywhere near the top of the leaderboard at the US Open, you pretty much needed all four finalists and at least one good dark horse!
The lead chopped and changed a few times throughout the fortnight but ultimately it proved to be a thrilling contest between Igor Savic (Scorpion Warriors) and Mikhail (Roger That) with Igor managing to win the US Open by just 8 points with a fantastic total of 1178 points. Mikhail may be 2nd in the Global League but he takes the weekly prize as a level 2 member.
Lets take a look at the final table and the head to head between these two teams.
Both Igor and Mikhail had Djokovic as Captain and all four finalists but crucially Igor had Sabalenka as a Key Player. In addition Igor, along with many others, picked the perfect Dark Horse in Ben Shelton who managed to rack up more than 100 points with his semi final run. Mikhail also got a decent return from his dark horse Qinwen Zheng who reached the quarter final.
So its a hearty congratulations to Igor for winning the game week and Mikhail for winning the level 2 weekly prize. Congrats also to Jon Apedaile (The Bakery), Craig Miller (Over Served) and Robyn (Thanks but No Shanks), who finished 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively and also had all four finalists.
