Monte Carlo results

 A nice easy round up this week as there was only one tournament in progress.

Headlines of the week:

Zverev's woes continue

Some may have expected that the beginning of the European clay season would bring about a return to form for Alexander Zverev after a string of disappointing results since the Australian Open but once again it was an early exit for the German at the hands of Matteo Berrettini.

Davidovich continues his good season

Another good week for Davidovich Fokina which began with a hard fought win over Jack Draper and saw him progress to the semi finals where he ultimately lost to Alcaraz.

Musetti the comeback king:

What a week it was for Lorenzo Musetti.  He looked on the verge of an early exit when trailing by a set and a break to Yunchaokete Bu but his impressive comeback in that match set the tone for the week.  He repeated the feat against Jiri Lehecka, comfortably beat compatriot Matteo Berrettini and then repeated the comeback feats against defending champ Tsitdipas in the Quarter Final and Alex De Minaur in the semi final.  

Alcaraz finds a way

It could be argued that Carlos was far from his best this week but he still provided plenty of class and entertainment to entertain the crowds and ultimately secure the crowds.  He dropped a set against Cerundolo and was very lucky to survive his quarter final match against the impressive Arthur Fils.  

Musetti would present a tough challenge in the final and probably played the best tennis in the week so it was no surprise when he took the first set.  However Alcaraz stormed back and by the time we had reached the third set it was clear that the tough matches he had played to reach the final, had taken its toll on Musetti as Carlos coasted to a 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory.

Lets take a look at the FTL tables for the week:

Congrats to Anthony who was top of the pile this week with his team Alcarazian Domination.  Anthony was just 6 points ahead of "What would Paul Do?" the team that Rick is continuing to run in memory of Vicki's husband Paul who was a very keen player of FTL  - a lovely tribute which Vicki was quite touched by.   

The top two teams in level 2 were Alcarazian Domination and Cleeve's New Season, New(ish) Grunts.

Lets take a look at the head to head between these two.

As you can see, they both had quite similar sides.   Both had Alcaraz as Captain and crucially both had finalist Lorenzo Musetti. They were both stung by Djokovic's performance and also shared Tsitsipas, Fils and Dimitrov.   

Cleeve had the better ER in Gasquet but ultimately, it was clay king Daniil Medvedev who proved the difference in this match up!  Medvedev's 41 points from 2 wins proved to be a better return than Muller and Nakashima for Cleeve!

Congrats to Anthony and Cleeve on a great week!