OVERALL STANDINGS - AFTER MONTECARLO

After the final results MonteCarlo were concluded, we find ourselves with a new Overall Leader - Taylor (Stripes VII).  

In the end your week was decided by 2 major factors - did you have the gutts to trade in Stefanos Tsitsipas and after Carlos Alcaraz withdrew, who was your Emergency Replacement?!?!  Incredibly enough, 6 of our top 10 managers had Stefanos in their lineup.

After amassing 439.4 points in MonteCarlo, Taylor has accumulated 4556.76 points this season.  Thanks to his 13th place finish this week, he moved up 2 places and now sits with a 24.9 point lead.  Taylor had both finalists, and had Sinner make the Semi's.  Rublev was his only player that lost their first match this week.  Sadly, Taylor made Alcaraz his Captain, but Musetti won 2 matches and was an incredibly valuable replacement

Thanks to a 28th place finish this week, Mohaib (Dr. peRFect) continues to sit in 2nd.  He lost 46 points to our new leader, but I'm sure he'll tell you that he gained nearly a 120 points on our previous leader lol.  Mohaib had a rather auspicious start to the week as both his Captain (Alcaraz) and DH selections (Lehecka) withdrew.  To somehow make matters worse, one of this TP's (Djere) retired in the midst of his first round match!!  Sadly, Mohaib didn't anyone available to come in as an Emergency Replacement so he was stuck with 2 zero's and an injury!  Hard to believe, but thanks to a couple of bigtime swings with his trades, he ended up with Tsitsipas winning the event, and Sinner and Djoker reaching the Semi's.  This could be the type of week that Mohaib looks back on fondly and realizes that this is how he won the whole damn thing - If Stef n Djoker lose early, things get real ugly in a hurry for him!   

Thanks to a 133rd place finish, Andrea R (Sinner Circle 24) dropped 2 places and sits in 3rd.  He lost 162 points to our new leader and now sits 32.3 points behind.  Andrea had one of the best weeks in the history of the FTL the week before n sadly, its nearly impossible to follow it up positively the week after!  Sadly before Round 1 was completed, he was down 4 players!!!  He lost 2 KP's - 1 by withdrawal (Alcaraz), a TP and his DH as Rublev, Berrettini and Jarry all lost without winning a set.  He didn't have an Emergency Replacement for the week, so it put him in rather dire straights right from the get go.  Ruud and Sinner saved him from what could have been an absolute massacre!

Thanks to a 23rd place finish, Elin (Grylla's goldens) moved up 2 places and sits in 4th.  She lost 33rd points to our leader, but gained 130 points to our previous leader, so she's now only down by 70 points.   She had both finalists and Sinner make the Semi's.  Sadly she had Jarry lose in R1 and had Alcaraz as her Captain with no replacement available to take his place. 

Thanks to a 54th place finish, Olya (Russian Warship GO FUCK YOURSELF!) dropped 1 place and sits in 5th.  She dropped 86 points to our new leader, but again picked up nearly 80 points on our previous leader and is now only down by 86.9 points.  Similar to Mohaib, her week got off to a rather auspicious start as she had her KP (Alcaraz) withdraw, a TP (Djere) retire mid first round match, and didn't have a replacement eligible to replace either of them.  Sadly, her Dark Horse (Berrettini) didn't make her feel any better, as he was a virtual noshow in his R1 match. She ended up with 3 of the 4 SemiFinalists, sadly the only one she didn't have, won the event lol.  Safe to say, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

 

MONTECARLO RESULTS

 A massive congratulations goes out to our winner of MonteCarlo - Stefanos Tsitsipas. 

The discussion surrounding Tsitsipas has been rather tricky over the past couple of years - his talent is hard to miss, but its also impossible to miss his shortcomings.  Ever since he lost the French Open final (In May of 2021) from 2 sets to love up against Novak Djokovic, Stef has struggled to close the door in the final of top tier events - He's made the final of 6 such events (above a 250) and had only won once - YES that's in nearly 3 years!!!  

 

To make matters worse, Stef had been having an absolute horror story of a season, as his best result of the season was a SF in a small 250 level event in Los Cabos.  His level was sooo low (every time you turned around, he shanked a ball from the backhand wing) that there was legit questions as to if he was going to fall outside the top 20.  All of this being said, MonteCarlo is Stef's fave Masters1000 level event on tour as not only does he live there in the offseason, but he's also won it twice.  Needless to say, it put many a prognosticator in a quandry with what to expect from him for the week.   Stef put all those doubters in their place quickly as he quickly dispatched 2 clay court specialists - Djere and Etcheverry.  He then beat Zverev in an incredibly tricky match 7-5,7-6 to reach the Quarters, and easily beat Khachanov to reach the Semi's.  Sadly his victory over Sinner in the Semi's won't be remembered by most for his triumph but instead a horrific linecall (on a double fault) that would have put Sinner up 2 breaks in the 3rd, and an injury to Jannik when he was leading 4-2.  Facts are facts though, Stef became only the 2nd player to beat Jannik this season.  In the final against Casper, Stef won in rather routine fashion 6-1,6-4.  The match seemed closer than the score indicated, but Stef won every big point, as Casper wasn't able to convert a single break chance.  Now the question for Stef going forward is can he continue this incredible level that he found this week in MonteCarlo or is it simply a blip on the radar screen that we won't see again until next year in MonteCarlo!?!?

I'd like to also give a huge kuddos to Casper Ruud.  Yes, he played a rather poor match in the final against Stef, as he went 0 for 8 on break chances, but he did something in the SemiFinal that he's never done before! - beat a top 3 player.  He came into the match against Novak Djokovic having never won a single set against a top 3 player - 0 for 25!!!  Safe to say that his victory over Novak will probably do him more good confidence wise than his run to the final this week!

Outside of the 2 finalists, there are 4 major questions that came out of this week.  

1. Novak didn't look like he was in proper condition in order to play a Bo3 with Casper Ruud.  Could this be an issue moving forward on the dirt this year?!?!?

2. Andrey Rublev - is he ever going to look like a top 5 player again?!?!?  Since his default in Dubai, he's looked like a shell of himself 

3.  Just how serious is the knee injury to Jannik?  Could this create havoc with the rest of his clay court season?!?!

4. How serious is Alcaraz's injury to his right forearm?!?!  He's already been forced to withdraw from both MonteCarlo and Barcelona, sooo could it be soo severe that he misses the French Open?  How will it look if he tries to play with it in Madrid?

In terms of FTL, the managers success was decided by 2 things - Did you have the gutts to trade in Stefanos Tsitsipas on his fave event (everyone in the top 15 had him), and who was your Emergency Replacement to cover Carlos Alcaraz's late withdrawal?!

I'd like to offer a huge congrats to our MonteCarlo GameWeek Winner - The Commissioner (Value Picks 💰📈).    His team showed the importance of building salary value throughout the early stage of season, as he was able to have Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and still be able to have a competitive roster behind it!!  As a result, he ended up with all 4 finalists.  The Commissioner accumulated an incredible 533.57 points this week - not bad considering there was only 1 event going on this week!  Its strange to say this, but he was able to win the week while having 2 players lose in R1 (Koepfer and his DH - Jarry)

Goran (Bridgeburners), Kevin G (SloanePlease), Derek G (DG - Djokovic the GOAT), and Niels (Russian Roulette) round out our top 5.  Everyone that finished inside the top 3 had all 4 finalists this week!