Game Week 33 round up

 

This weeks champs

Elena Rybakina  (WTA Finals Riyadh)

Lerner Tien  (Metz)

Novak Djokovic (Athens)

To Riyadh first and the WTA Tour Finals.     

The quest for Elena Rybakina to overhaul Mirra Andreeva and reach the top 8 was the main storyline at the end of the WTA season.   As Andreeva's season faltered both Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina finished the season strongly.  Paolini secured her spot by making the semi finals in Wuhan and Ningbo and Rybakina won the title in Ningbo and completed the job in Tokyo by reaching the semi finals.

Andreeva had to settle for a spot in the doubles contest but as it turned out, Mirra was one of three players who was unwell at Riyadh along with Paolini and Madison Keys.  

But Rybakina was feeling great when she arrived in Riyadh -  confidence high after her run of impressive results and it was quickly apparent that the conditions in Riyadh would be perfect for her game.  Many pundits were already picking her as a dark horse who could upset the top two of Swiatek and Sabalenka.

And she started off brightly dispatching Anisimova 6-3, 6-1 in her opening match.  Even more surprising was the manner in which she demolished Iga Swiatek after losing the first set of their encounter. She lost just one game in the next two sets.  That was enough to secure qualification and a final win over Alexandrova who replaced the ill Madison Keys was academic but preserved her unbeaten status.

Iga Swiatek and Amanada Anisimova battled it out for the 2nd place spot and Anisimova, who was finally finding her feet on the Riyadh courts came out on top.  Despite Iga still have a strong season on tour, the manner of some of her defeats will be a concern to her and her team going into 2026.

With Paolini under the weather, the Stefanie Group was always going to between world no 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Jess Pegula and it was always a possibility that the opening match between Gauff and Pegula would be crucial.  It was a bit of a dire affair if truth be told, Coco's serve and forehand issues continued to haunt her and she loss to J-Peg in three sets. 

Aryna was pushed by Pegula and Gauff but managed to overcome them both to finish the group on top with an unblemished record.  

If the group stages perhaps didn't catch fire - the semi finals were crackers. Sabalenka was pushed all the way by Anisimova and Rybakina once again came from a set down to defeat Pegula.   

That left us with a dream final with the two undefeated group winners Rybakina and Sabalenka.  Rybakina just kept on rolling, putting in a sterling performance to win  6-3, 7-6 and secure a modest total of 5.235 million in winnings as an undefeated champion!

Athens

The penultimate week of the ATP Season also carried significant weight in terms of Tour Finals qualification.  Lorenzo Musetti went into the Athens event knowing he had to win it to regain his place in the top 8 from Felix Auger Aliassime who had overtaken him in the race at the Paris Masters.  FAA was also down to play in Metz but decided to withdraw due to a niggling injury and just took the risk hoping that Musetti wouldn't get it done. 

FAA must have been watching from behind the sofa as Musetti came from a set down to beat Wawrinka, beat Muller and then came through a tough battle with Korda to reach the final.

The opponent?  Novak Djokovic of course.  Novak had of course long since qualified for the tour finals but there were questions about his participation in Turin for months and Novak was in no mood to clarify the position, An announcement by the Italian federation that he was playing was quickly dismissed by Novak as premature!

So, as far as Musetti was concerned, he had to win that final!  He started well, winning the first set but Novak was not to be denied in front of his adopted Greek fans.  Musetti lost the 2nd set and was quickly a break behind in the 3rd set but he kept coming back only to be broken again by Novak.

So Djokovic prevailed and secured his 101st ATP title but it didn't take him long to confirm what most of us expected.  He would not be participating at the tour finals in Turin and apparently Musetti was the first to know when they shook hands at the net!

It must have been mixed feelings for Lorenzo - on the one hand the joy of knowing he would be able to compete in the tour finals in his own country and actually benefit from a higher seeded spot as Novak's replacement but on the other hand, he would have probably preferred a week of rest prior to the event.  Had Novak's mind been made up before Athens?  Possibly... but its also possible that an early exit in Athens might have given him the motivation and preparation time to compete in Turin.

Metz

The Metz final was contested between Cameron Norrie and Lerner Tien.  

Cam seems to be rediscovering his form after going through a bit of a rough patch and Lerner Tien continues to gain admirers with his aggressive brand of tennis.

This will be the last year of the Metz event which is a shame as it always attracts a sizeable audience and Norrie and Tien did not let them down in a thrilling final.   Norrie recovered from a 1-4 deficit in the final set to force a tie break and he appeared to have the match within his grasp as he took a 5-1 lead in the tie break only for Tien to come roaring back to win the title!

Here is the Global League Table for the game week:

Congrats to Frances Durkin and Novak's last stand who just pipped Michael Schmaderbeck (Ace) to top the global game week leaderboard.   

Here is the game week winning team.

In a week where most squads were focusing on players in the WTA finals and had the remainder of their squad filled with ATP final contestants, there was scope for some manager to find a good differential who might just make a difference.  Frances found that player in Cameron Norrie who's run to the final in Metz made him an excellent choice.

Frances still had 6 WTA players in her team but managed to leave out the two who finished bottom of their groups.  She also had Athens winner Novak Djokovic in her side.  All in all an excellent team which could have been even better if she had opted to go with Musetti over Iga or Coco.

Here is the head to head for the two teams who contested the level 2 prize this game week. 

Congrats to Michael who tops the level 2 table this week beating Devin by 13 points.  Devin actually missed the news about FAA not playing so had Musetti coming in as a replacement.  The additional points that Devin would have gained from having Musetti in his starting 8 wouldn't have changed the outcome though.