GAMEWEEK 5 RESULTS

 Huge congrats to our winners this week - Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner, Taylor Fritz and umm Facundo Diaz Acosta?!?!  The first 3 winners were all top seeds, and then there's Facundo who required a MDWC to get into the field!

Iga Swiatek won the Masters 1000 event in Doha (for the 3rd straight time) in dominant fashion.   She easily won her first 3 matches (Sorana Cirstea, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Victoria Aarenka), but when she reached the final, Elena Rybakina awaited her.  Elena's game truly bothers Iga (beat her 3 times last year), so when Elena ran out to a 2 break 4-1 lead, ya had to wonder if Iga would finally lose in Doha.  With Elena serving to up the lead to 5-1 in the first set, Elena cut her leg with her racquet and was forced to take a Medical Time Out.  It wasn't a serious cut, but it changed the momentum, and after the 5 to 6 min break, Iga came out firing and the match turned on a dime.  Elena had numerous chances to win the 1st set in the tiebreak, but in the end Iga came through, and quickly ran away in the 2nd set and closed her out in straight sets.  Thanks to a walkover in the SemiFinal (against Karolina Pliskova), Iga played a total of 8 sets this week.   She lost a total of 19 games this week - 8 of which were in the final.  I guess the only question is can Iga continue this type of dominance going forward?!?!  

 

Jannik Sinner won the 500 level event in Rotterdam.  All he's done soo far this season is win!  He's played 2 events and won both - Aussie Open and this week!!   Honestly, he looked miles from his best all week, but it was plenty good enough.  He beat Botic Van De Zandschulp, Gael Monfils, Milos Raonic (it might have gotten complicated, if Milos doesn't get hurt), Tallon Griekspoor, and Alex De Minaur.   In 7 tries, De Minaur has never beaten him, but damn he played him tough this week.  Jannik has had some sensational results at the Sunshine Double in the past, so the only real question is can he win both this year?!?!?  It would be quite the start to the season if he does!

Taylor Fritz won the 250 level event in DelRay Beach (for the 2nd straight time) in dominant fashion (not Iga domination, but still lol).  He won all 4 matches (Nuno Borges, Rinky Hijikata, Marcos Giron and Tommy Paul) in straight sets.  Marcos and Tommy have had sensational US swings, but neither gave Taylor much of an issue.  Not many ppl know this, but Taylor has now won his last 7 finals!

Facundo Diaz Acosta won the 250 level event in Buenos Aires.  In an event that had Carlos Alcaraz, Facundo, who got in as a Main Draw Wild Card, did what no one else did this week - win 5 matches in straight sets!  He came into the week ranked 87th, and after beating Daniel Altmaier, Francisco Cerundolo, Dusan Lajovic, Federico Coria and Nicolas Jarry, his ranking moved up to 59th!   Facundo played one Main Draw ATP Tour Level match outside of South America last year, so it will be interesting to see his schedule going forward.

 

In terms of FTL, the 4th GameWeek highlighted the necessity of increased Salary Caps, and the importance of the Dark Horse Category.  A manager would have needed 75mill + to have 6 of the Finalists this week (Swiatek, Rybakina, Sinner, De Minaur, Fritz and Paul) and there were 2 Semi Finalists (Pavlyuchenkova, and Pliskova) that were available to be selected as Dark Horses.

 

The 4th GameWeek is one of the closest results in recent memory as 5 managers were within 6.7 points!!!

Nikhil (nbladweilder) led for the entire week, but his lead entering the final match (Fritz vs Paul) was less than a couple of points, so it felt like a matter of time until he was caught.  In the end Tommy Paul put up just enough points, and Nikhil finished second. 

 

Wayne (Court and Spark) amassed 553.01 points for the week.  He had Sinner as his Captain, and Swiatek as a KP.  He also had both Rybakina and Paul make the finals.  His inspired Dark Horse selection, Naomi Osaka, was probably the difference.

Nikhil (nbladeweilder), Andrea Lenox (San Clemente Aces), Andrew Doyle (A Slice of Distinction) and Goran (Bridgeburners) round out our top 5.  Andrea is one of the 2 managers this week that played Facundo Diaz Acosta, and probably ends up winning GW4 if Lehecka manages to close out Hurkacz in the 3rd set tiebreak.