GAMEWEEK 6 RESULTS

I'd like to offer a huge kuddos to our event winners this week - Tomas Machac, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Laslo Djere, Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro.

 

Up until the middle of last year, the first thing many of us thought of when we saw or discussed Tomas Machac was how on earth is his career high ranking outside the top 50!?!?!  You watched him play, and it was truly hard to figure.  Since then, he seemed to turn the corner - he made the 4th round at the US Open, and beat both Alcaraz and Djokovic in the past 6-8 months.  The title in Acapulco was his first on the ATP Tour, and with it, helps him achieve a new career high ranking - 20!!!  I'd like to tell you that he had some epic run to the title this week, but thanks to a bad case of food poisoning, our top 4 seeds were all vanquished before the end of the 2nd round!  He ended up with 5 victories over top 100 players (Mensik, Altmaier, Tien, Nakashima and Davidovich Fokina), but it probably ends up being a far tougher task without all of the health issues!

 

Stefanos Tsitsipas' victory in Dubai is its own crazy little story.  Stefanos has been a horrifying watch on anything other than a clay court for a couple of years now.  Even when you see him in his pressers, you can't help but wonder if he needs to take an extended time away from the court.  He's been talking about how his level has been the same over the past few years, but he's not seeing the same results.  Meanwhile, anyone that's watched him play, knows that it couldn't be further from the truth - every opponent has targeted his backhand for quite some time, as you seem to either get a short ball or a mishit shank.  Stefanos started the week with a blacked out racquet and was crushing the ball cleanly off both wings, which left many of us wondering, where on earth did this come from.  Hell, I'm sure his opponents were thinking the same thing!!!  Hell in his victory over Griekspoor, his backhand received a score of 9.6!!!  His victories over some extremely talented players (Sonego, Khachanov, Berrettini, Griekspoor and FAA) are not only important for his ranking (he's now back in the top 10), but his confidence as well.  It will be real interesting to see if this is just a fluke, or if this type of level is something that we could see moving forward!!  He's never fared very well during the Sunshine Double, soo lets see!

 

Laslo Djere is a fun story as well.  He finished the 2025 season ranked outside the top 110, but came into the event in Santiago with some confidence as he played incredibly well in Buenos Aires (losing in 3 sets to the young phenom - Joao Fonseca) just a couple of weeks prior.   On his way to the title, he beat Pedro Martinez, a young up n comer, Jaime Faria, Francisco Cerundolo and the defending champion Sebastian Baez!!  As a result, Laslo finished the South American swing with a 9-1 record and his ranking has jumped more than 40 spots (back inside the top 75!).  Laslo also joins a very select group of Serbs that have won 150 ATP Tour level matches in their career!  Anyone care to tell me who he joined (other than Djokovic lol)?

 

Jessica Pegula hasn't looked quite right all season, but that didn't seem to matter this week lol.   I'm sure that she felt the weight of expectations (her playing didn't allow Keys to play, so I'm sure it was magnified) as she played in front of the home crowd in Austin (and a certain celebrity - ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT), but I'm not sure there was a single opponent that she faced that could make her question herself or make her feel rushed like what happened in her losses (Keys, Alexandrova, Noskova) earlier this year.  She played one poor set all week (against Tomljanovic), but otherwise the rest of her sets and matches were rather straightforward.  Curious to see how she fares in the Sunshine Double this week, especially considering the speed of the courts in Indian Wells is supposed to be increased!

 

Emma Navarro's victory in Merida was nothing short of dominant - she lost a total of 15 games all week!!  I'd like to tell you that she played the who's who on her way to the title, but I can't - She was the sole seed that made the Semi's!  When the draw came out, most of us were expecting a final with her and Paula Badosa, but Paula wrenched her lower back in the QF, and was forced to retire mid-match against Daria Saville.  I'm sure Emma will take some confidence from this result, but I don't know how much confidence you can take when you only beat 1 player ranked inside the top 75 (Avanesyan).  It does help her achieve a career high ranking tho :) - 8th!  I'm real curious to see how she fares in the Sunshine Double.

 

In terms of FTL, there were alot of managers (myself included) that were left scratching our heads and wondering what on earth just happened.  If you didn't have the 2 top seeded American Women, virtually all of your faves either lost early or withdrew due to injury or illness!

 

The only good thing about this type of week is that IF you somehow came through the week unscaved, you were able to gain massive amounts of ground on everyone else.  This is a ridiculous example, but here's how the winner fared against myself lol (keep in mind, I normally finish the season ranked inside the top 10) - he beat me by nearly 370 points!!!  If you can't laugh, I don't know what else to tell you!

 Lets give a massive kuddos to our GW Victor - Israel, as he accumulated an incredible 461.96 points!!  He had the winner of Austin (Pegula) as his Captain, the winner of Acapulco (Machac) as his KP and the finalist in Dubai FAA).  Its a little bit better than my 6 Round 1 losses and my Round 2 withdrawal LMFAO.

 

I'd also like to give a kuddos to our Option 2 winner (Coco Jumbo) who managed to be within 5 points of our victor!