"I know Coco - but who's that other guy!"
Game Week 29 brought us one of the craziest stories in tennis history and also one of the most dramatic endings to an FTL game week both in the league and the cup!!
With all respect to the awesome Coco, there really only is one place to begin when summing up the last week.
A Shanghai Surprise
Valentin Vacherot. The Monegasque Maestro! The little cousin who upstaged the world!
Vacherot wasn't even in qualies for this event - he was an alternate for qualies - i think i heard 9th alternate at the outset (but that sounds crazy). As is the way at the events, a few withdrawals happened and suddenly Vacherot was in the qualies draw - a nice wee break for him right?
In qualies he came back from behind twice (against Basavareddy and Draxl) to make it into the main draw. Nice one - opportunity to play at a big event, get some experience, maybe a win or two to get some very valuable ranking points.
But Valentin had bigger plans! Djere was despatched but then Valentin took out his first big name - Bublik in the 2nd round, again coming from a set down.
Meanwhile things were opening up in the draw. Alcaraz had already withdrawn before the event but in Vacherot's section, his dream of a clash with Sinner was dashed when Sinner crashed out to Griekspoor. Jannik went down with horrific cramping (which turned out to be a theme for the week with many players).
A retiral by Machac paved the way for Vacherot to set up a 4th Round clash with Griekspoor and once again Vacherot came through coming from a set down.
By this stage, it was already becoming a bit of a fairytale for Vacherot. Next up was Rune. Vacherot admitted himself that this was a level up again for him - he wasn't used to playing players like this! Rune took the first set 6-2, but once again Vacherot came back - taking the 2nd set in a tie break and coming through in the 3rd against Rune who by this stage was also cramping. Vacherot was physically outlasting his more experienced opponents!
And it was the same story in the semi final against Novak!! I know - right!?? I can't believe I'm writing this either. To be fair to Djokovic, he seemed to be having physical issues throughout this tournament but in his inimitable way - he was still winning his matches. The semi final was a match too far though and he just couldn't get passed his inspired opponent. Vacherot did not break under pressure.
So what was happening on the other side of the draw? Well this is where things got even more crazy. So the guy making waves on the other side of the draw was Arthur Rinderknech (not quite as surprising - he's had some good results this year) but the bonkers revelation (to most of us) was that Arthur was Valentin's cousin.
As Rinderknech progressed through the draw - beating Zverev for the 2nd time this season in the third round, there were already a few jokes about the cousins meeting up in the final. Yeah - pull the other one - nice idea - but that's never going to happen is it?
Straight sets wins for Lehecka and FAA followed for Rinderknech and all of the sudden he was in a semi final against Medvedev. Medvedev has seen his fortunes turn recently and has definitely being playing better tennis but despite taking the first set in the semi final, it was Rinderknech who prevailed. It was destiny right? Vacherot came on the court after the match to congratulate his cousin.
After all that, the final itself seems almost academic. It was already an incredible story but there really could only be one winner and only in one way. Valentin Vacherot, the qualifier, came back from a set down to beat his big cousin Arthur. 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. And as he held the trophy aloft after the match, Rinderknech keeled over onto the ground suffering from cramp and comically rolled off the stage!
Dang - this is turning into War and Peace and i've not even started on Wuhan yet! I'll keep this one brief!
There were surprises in store for our top two seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
Iga's record against fellow top 10 players has been surprisingly poor this year and the manner of her defeat to Jasmine Paolini (6-1, 6-2) in the quarter finals was certainly an eye-opener.
For her part, Paolini along with Elena Rybakina is putting considerable pressure on Mirra Andreeva in the race for two remaining tour final spots. Andreeva has been on a poor run of form of late and this time she fell at the first hurdle to veteran Laura Siegemund.
Aryna Sabalenka who had hitherto never lost a match in Wuhan (having won the two previous editions) lost out to Jess Pegula at the semi final stage. Pegula has shown some serious battling qualities in this Asian swing coming through a number of tough 3 setters in the process. That dogged determination was needed again in her win over Sabalenka.
Meanwhile Coco Gauff (who many had written off as work in progress in recent months due to her efforts with her new coach to iron out the technical difficulties in her game) suddenly found a bit of form. She brushed all her opponents aside with minimal fuss en route to her first ever final with her friend and doubles partner Jess Pegula.
Coco prevailed in two tight sets to give her a confidence boosting triumph in advance of the year end finals and there are signs that she is definitely moving in the right direction
OK - and so to FTL - here is the global league table for Game Week 29.
Now first of all - congratulations to The Artists. Carlito had an incredible game week and outscored the best of the rest by over 30 points. Here is his picture perfect team!!
So Carlito had both Wuhan finalists including Coco Gauff as a KP. Solid returns from semi finalists Djokovic and Sabalenka, FAA and dark horse Lerner Tien all added up to an excellent game week. Massive congrats to Carlito and the artisits!
But the battle for the Level 2 game week prize was where the real drama was at.
As we progressed to the semi finals in Wuhan, Nachiket and his Amazeballs looked odds on to win an unprecedented 2nd game week in a row. I may have jinxed him by all but congratulating him on the win but there was the small matter of Jess Pegula - a player Nachiket did not have but who the chasing duo of Nikhil (nbladeweilder) and Daniel (no strings attached) DID!!
Pegula's unexpected win over the Wuhan Queen Sabalenka changed everything. The gap was cut to single figures and all of a sudden Nachiket was reliant on Coco not just winning the final but winning BIG!! In the end Coco fulfilled the first part but despite a straight sets win, Pegula secured enough points to allow both Nikhil and Daniel to sneak past Nachiket by the narrowest of margins!
And there was have it. Just 0.04 points between 1st and 2nd. And Nachiket was only 0.57 points behind the winning total. I could do an analysis of those three sides, discuss captaincy and KP choices and dark horse selections but it would be a pointless exercise as sometimes FTL just comes down to the smallest of margins. This week was just simply that.
The managers may point to a few shouldawouldacouldas but at the end of the day I reckon we just have to say - Congrats Nikhil, Daniel and Nachiket - awesome game week!
The FTL Cup brought its fair share of drama too with both semi finals featuring dramatic head to heads and still in the balance right up until the last match but that story was covered in another blog post.
Congratulations to our two finalists -
Nadal's Forehand (Dragan)
and
Rydal 250 Sponsor Exemption (Eric and Michael)
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