French Open round up

Ladies and gents - your French Open winners are Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff

What a dramatic finale we had to the men's and women's events at the French Open.

The men's final between Alcaraz and Sinner was one for the ages.  5 sets which brought us 5 and half hours of back and forth entertainment.  We could argue about where it sits in the best matches of all time or the best comebacks of all time but I think we can all agree it was a high quality match full of drama.

Alcaraz went into the tournament as the favourite.  Clay is a favoured surface for him having recently won 2 Masters titles on the surface  and the recent head to head record against Sinner was also impressive and included a win in the Italian Open final.

Sinner was looking very impressive though.  He cruised through the French Open without dropping a set, continuing the trend of humbling solid ATP opponents like Lehecka and Rublev.  His first big test came in the semi final with the mighty Novak Djokovic the opposition.  Novak threw everything at Sinner but even he couldn't get a set of him.

Alcaraz meanwhile went through the tournament playing his delightful brand of expansive tennis but at times his form dipped and he did drop some sets along the way.  In his semi final against Musetti he lost the 1st and was pushed hard in the 2nd before injury caused Musetti's level to dip and ultimately he retired.

So, come the final, it was extremely hard to call and many anticipated there would be a 5 set thriller. They got their wish but it could have been so so different.  Leading 2 sets to 1, Sinner found himself with 3 match points on the Alcaraz serve and it seemed like the game was over.  Somehow Alcaraz survived and took the 4th set.   

By the 5th, Alcaraz looked on top, Sinner seemed to be cramping and Alcaraz took the early break.  Remarkably Sinner found some inner reserves to fight back however and threatened again to turn the match around. In the end it took a super tie break to separate them, a tie break in which Alcaraz hit winner after winner and finally conquered the resistance of his Italian opponent.

Its fair to say these two are likely to dominate men's tennis for some time to come!

The women's final lacked the quality of the men's final but it was not short of suspense.  Aryna Sabalenka was playing terrific tennis - and she had to -  in order to overcome a string of tough opponents including Anisimova in Round 4,  Qinwen Zheng in the quarter final and reigning champ Iga Swiatek in the semi final.   It seemed she was on a date with destiny and Aryna definitely believed it.

Her opponent in the final was Coco Gauff who had shown a real upturn in fortunes during the clay court swing but was often still reliant on winning ugly when her game did not reach the levels that she expects of herself.  That was certainly true of her quarter final against Madison Keys which saw both players put in an error strewn performance.

Coco's semi final opponent was the surprise package of the tournament. Frenchwoman Lois Boisson.  A few eyebrows were raised when Lois took out Elise Mertens in the 1st Round but it was her back to back wins over Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva that got the tennis world talking and the French crowds dreaming.  In the end though Coco was too talented and powerful for her opponent but this run will definitely kickstart the career of Boisson.

The crucial moment for the final perhaps came right at the beginning. The windy conditions were clearly going to make life difficult for both players and consideration was apparently given to closing the roof.  In the end though they kept it an outdoor event and it quickly became clear that Coco was coping with the conditions far better than an increasingly frustrated Sabalenka.   Aryna was visibly annoyed that she wasn't able to reproduce the tennis that she had played throughout the fortnight and she will feel this is one that got away but for Gauff it was an intelligent and gutsy performance that secured her a second grand slam.

The battle for FTL supremacy was equally close!   At this time of the season it definitely pays to have built up a significant bank balance and its the only way you would have been able to afford a competitive team for this event.   At the start of the season, we have a budget of 100 million to cover our squad of 16. The  average 8 player starting line up for the French Open would have cost 120 million alone!  And most teams now have a value in excess of 170 million!

At the end of the competition we have the two top ranked players facing off in the mens and womens singles for the first time in decades.  And the most common FTL starting line up was Alcaraz captain, with Sinner, Gauff and Sabalenka as key players.

The choice of a good dark horse was also crucial to this week with Rublev, Samsonova and Kasatkina proving to be the most profitable picks.

There were question marks over some of the top names.  How would Novak play having been so poor during the clay season but eventually finding some form in Geneva.  How about Iga, a multiple RG champ but also out of form or Zverev who's season had been one of ups and downs.  In the end they all did pretty well and turned out to be solid picks for those who chose them even if they didn't make the final.  

Perhaps the main casualty from an FTL point of view in the early stages was Casper Ruud who was a surprise 2nd Round casualty to Nuno Borges and another popular pick Jasmine Paolini squandered match point chances in her 4th round tie with Svitolina to deprive us of a highly anticipated quarter final showdown with Iga.   Jack Draper was also a surprise early casualty as he fell victim to an inspired Sasha Bublik

So lets take a look at the final FTL table for the French Open  (Level 2)

Rick and Mamba Mentality led the way for a considerable part of the French Open but ultimately the loss of Jasmine Paolini and Iga's win over Rybakina put the brakes on his chances.

AND it was Gord MacCabe and Gordon Trailers who ultimate triumphed at the French Open edging out Antonella and "Just married...with child" by 24 points.  Congrats to both on a great week.

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

As you would expect both had all four finalists, they both had solid dark horse picks with both having Rublev and Gordon going for the impressive young talent Mboko and Antonella matching her score with Yastremska.  So really there was just one match that was the difference between them.  Gordon had Djokovic and Antonella had Zverev.  The two met in the quarter final and it was Novak who won!  That was it - that was the difference between first and second.  

The only match that prevented Gordon from having all 8 semi finalists was the shock defeat of Andreeva had the hands of Boisson.  Its unlikely we will ever see a better performance at a slam!

Congrats again to Gordon and Antonella on an incredible fortnight!