Game Week 32 Round up

 

Congratulations to our four champs in Game Week 32.

Paris Masters -  Jannik Sinner

Hong Kong - Victoria Mboko

Jiujiang -  Anna Blinkova

Chennai -  Janice Tjen

Paris Masters  roundup

Jannik Sinner continues to dominate on indoor hard courts.  He now has a winning streak of 26 matches in a row over a two year period which is still far short of the remarkable run of John McEnroe who won 47 consecutive matches over a 9 year period between 1978 and 1987.

In the process, Jannik reclaimed the no 1 spot in the rankings with Carlos Alcaraz a surprise early exit at the hands of Britain's Cameron Norrie.

Sinner continued his domineering form from  Vienna as he did not drop a set all week en route to the final dispatching Bergs, Cerundolo, Shelton and an ailing Zverev with ease.

His opponent in the final was Felix Auger Aliassime who was making a remarkable late bid to snatch the last spot at the Tour Finals away from the present incumbent Lorenzo Musetti.  A victory in the final for FAA would have secured his spot but by falling short in the final against Sinner, it left the door open for Musetti to recover his positon if he wins Athens.  

FAA has the option to play in Metz in the last week of the season but chose to skip the week due to physical issues and has therefore opened the door for Lorenzo who, as I type this has made it to the semi finals in Athens.  It will be very interesting if his fate depends on a final against Novak Djokovic.  Needless to say, one or two players may be missing from the ATP Finals photoshoot.

Hong Kong

Congrats to Victoria Mboko on winning her 2nd WTA title.  The talented Canadian youngster stunned the tennis world when she won the 1000 title in Montreal earlier this year.  Since then her form has been a bit patchy but she was back to her best in Hong Kong.

She had to fight for it though.  Three sets were required to see off another breakthrough star in the shape of Alexanrda Eala in the 2nd Round.  And she needed to go the distance again to see off in form compatriot Leylah Fernandez.   

The final itself was another terrific battle.  She faced the Spaniard Cristina Bucsa and looked to be in control at a set and a break up but Bucsa fought back taking the 2nd set after a thrilling tie break but in the end it was Mboko who took control in the third.

Jiangxi Open

One of the stories of the week in Jiujiang was the performance of young Lilli Tagger - an Austrian 17 year old who was playing her first WTA Tour level event after winning the French Open juniors earlier this year.  

Lilli defeated Chenting Zhu, Cocciaretto and Korpatsch to set up a semi final with Victoria Golubic.  That proved to be a terrific struggle with Lilli fighting back to secure a three set win setting up a final with the Russian Anna Blinkova.

Blinky (does anyone else call her that or just me?)  had a terrific week and did not drop a set on her path to the final which included wins over Paquet, Bondar, Parks and Salkova. Perhaps a little bit of experience helped as Blinkova comfortably won the final to win her 2nd WTA title.

Did anyone see Blinky's acceptance speech delivered in Mandarin.  (she had even been chatting to fans in Mandarin a language which she has only recently started studying.)   Blinky is a bit of a polyglot who is already proficient in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Slovakian.

Chennai

And finally to Chennai and another new name who is making waves on the WTA tennis circuit this year.  That would be Janice Tjen of Malaysia - a popular pick with many FTLers this week. 

Janice has won 14 titles at ITF and Challenger level over the last two years and attracted some interest when she qualified for the US Open and defeated Veronika Kudermetova before losing in the 2nd round to Raducanu,

She very nearly won her first WTA title shortly after that, reaching the final in Sao Paulo where she lost to Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France.

But she finally secured her first WTA title of her career in India defeating the Australian Kimberly Birrell in the final.

Here is the Global FTL table for the Game Week.

Congratulations to our game week winner  JK2025  (Jakub)  who had an outstanding week, amassing a total of 627.547 points which was almost 40 points more than Violet's Grass Court Masters in 2nd place.

Lets take a look at Jakub's team...

Jakub could hardly have a picked a better starting quartet.  Jannik Sinner as Captain (ok we pretty much all had him apart from a few opportunists who went with Alcaraz) but also the other three semi finalists were all there as Key Players.  If that's not enough Jakub also had WTA Hong Kong  winner Victoria Mboko and also had a decent return from Valentin Vacherot who did pretty well in Paris.  All in all an incredible week!

Turning to level 2 - the battle for the weekly prize was between Grass Court Masters (Violet) and Prepare for Czech Mate (Tricia)

Here is the head to head between the two teams

Two almost identical sides to be honest.  Both captained Sinner and had two other Paris semi finalists in FAA and Zverev.  Both were savvy in joining the Janice Tjen train and played her as a KP.  The only difference was that Violet picked a third winner in the shape of Mboko and also played her as a KP.  Tricia's Medvedev scored well but couldn't match the points Victoria secured in Hong Kong.

Congrats to both on a great week.