Game Week 18 results

 

Apologies for being a little tardy with the update for Game Week 18.  To be honest with all the crazy results going on at Wimbledon in the last few days, I was worried that I would have forgotten half of what went down last week.

But as I look back over the results of Game Week 18, it seems very much relevant to Wimbledon particularly in relation to the question as to whether playing in the week before a slam is the best preparation.

This is particularly relevant to the Bad Homburg event which is a fairly high level WTA event which attracts a strong line-up.  For Iga Swiatek, this is the one warm up event she always plays before Wimbledon partly out of necessity I suspect as she generally needs that extra time to recover from a tough European clay swing.  She may have exited earlier from the French Open than she is used to but she stuck to her routine and it seem to pay off as she made her first WTA final at grass court level.

Her opponent in the final was Jess Pegula who has had a consistently good season.  Jess was  to triumph in the final relatively comfortably defeating Iga in straight sets. Nevertheless it was a tough week for Jess with 3 setters against both Noskova and Navarro and a short turn around before Wimbledon.  In the circumstances. this may have been a contributing factor in her surprise Wimbledon defeat to Cocciaretto this week.  

The same could be said for youngster Maya Joint and Alexandra Eala who contested the Eastbourne final.  Bold predictions are already being made about these two becoming top 10 players in the future and they certainly served up a great final with Maya eventually prevailing to secure her 2nd WTA title while a visibly disappointed Eala will have to wait a little longer for her maiden triumph.

Both youngsters would have gone into Wimbledon full of confidence and many predicted Joint to defeat an inconsistent Samsonova anad Eala to defeat Wimbledon champ Krejcikova who despite a couple of wins appeared far from physcially read to defend her Wimbledon champ.  As it was, the two experienced campaigners came through these matches and it did appear that Maya and Alexandra just ran out of steam.

In sunny Mallorca it was Tallon Griekspoor who triumphed defeated Corentin Moutet.   Griekspoor would also perish in the Wimbledon 1st Round but at the hands of Jenson Brooksby who was the finalist in Eastbourne.  Brooksby has since lost to Fonseca at Wimbledon.

But there is always an exception and that man is Taylor Fritz.  Its about time they erected a statue for him at Eastbourne as he secured his 4th title there!

His reward was an incredibly tough draw at Wimbledon with Mpetshi Perricard in Round 1 and Diallo in Round 2.  Despite the short turnaround from Eastbourne, Fritz came  through both matches in 5 sets with the match against GMP spanning 2 days.   A pretty incredible achievement when you think about it but you have to wonder how much he has left in the tank for this rest of Wimbledon. Fortunately, as i write this, he has a day of  rest!!

And so to the FTL results.

Here is the global league table for Game Week 18

Congratulations to Ukr Tennis (Romchyk) who were top of the pile in the global league this week, 20 points clear of Frank Nokla teams in 2nd spot.

Here is the Ukr Tennis lineup

Romchyk had a solid team for this week with Eastbourne champion Taylor Fritz as Captain and Bad Homburg champ Jess Pegula as a KP.   A solid supporting role from Bad Homburg semi finalist Noskova as well as decent returns from FAA, Michelsen, Raducanu and Fonseca were enough to secure a great return of points for the Game Week.

Here is the table for level 2.

Congrats to Michael Blomer who is the week 2 prize winnter for this week edging out Flo Rnd by the smallest of margins!

Here is the head to head between the two lineups.

Remarkably Michael one the game week with a 6 player team so based on that stat alone, he probably deserved it.  Thunderturkeys actually had 3 of the game week champions in the shape of Captain Fritz, KP Griekspoor and Maya Joint.    Wallet Phone Keys Racket had a solid 7 players but only one winner in Fritz.   Had they played Fritz as a KP or a Captain, they would have won the game week!