Four events this week and four very worthy winners.
Berlin
The WTA event in Berlin had a pretty stacked line up but I don't think many would have predicted the final pairing even though both the women involved know their way around a grass court.
Wang Xinyu is a delightful personality who gave several fun interviews throughout the week and provided the first upset of the week beating the newly crowned French Open Champion Coco Gauff. She benefitted from the retirement of Badosa after a one sided first set in the next round and then dispatched Samsonova with ease to reach the final.
Meanwhile on the other side of the draw, it was wonderful to see Marketa Vondrousova back playing great grass court tennis after all her recent injury woes.
In a run which saw her beat Aussie Open champ Madison Keys, Diana Shnaider, two time wimbledon runner up Ons Jabeur and World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Vondrousova only dropped one set (to Shnaider).
Marketa and Xinyu served up a great final. Marketa won a tight first set tie break, Xinyu struck back in the 2nd before the Czech proved too strong in the final set. Marketa is showing the kind of form which saw her win Wimbledon a couple of years ago - could she repeat the feat in this years edition?
Halle
The most emotional winner of the week was Alexander Bublik in Halle. Often seen as the jester of the tennis world, Bublik has always been infuriating as he is capable of playing some great entertaining tennis while at the same time throwing in some pretty dire performances and has been accused of not taking his tennis seriously.
His form over the last year has been so bad that he had considered retiring but in the last couple of months things have started to turnaround for him perhaps starting with his win at the Phoenix Challenger in March. Since then he surprised everyone with his results on the clay - a surface which in the past has been alien to him. A great run in Madrid was followed with an even more impressive run at Roland Garros which was only ended in devastating fashion by Jannik Sinner.
Bublik was to get his revenge on Sinner in Halle though and found himself in the final against Daniil Medvedev, a player who he had a 0-6 record against. This time Bublik was up to the task and he won the Halle title. The enormity of the occasion, finally getting one over Medvedev and perhaps the increasing realisation that he can compete with the best, especially on grass, is starting to make Bublik rethink his relationship with tennis. I doubt the underarm serves will ever go though!
Queens
After that dramatic and remarkable French Open triumph and a bit of downtime in Ibiza, many might have expected that Carlos Alcaraz would struggle in his first event on the grass.
Not a bit of it. Carlos loves the grass, perhaps even more than the European clay. His winning percentage record on the surface is second to none and as the week progressed in London, his performances became better and better.
Jiri Lehecka is another man who finds the grass perfect for his game style. Lehecka didn't drop a set all week with impressive wins over De Minaur, Diallo (Rosmalen champ) and the British pair Fearnley and newly crowned no 4 in the world Jack Draper.
The final was always going to be a more daunting prospect but Lehecka acquitted himself well and deservedly bounced back to take the 2nd set after Carlos had taken the lead. Alcaraz found another gear in the third though and cruised to another Queens triumph. It would take a brave man to bet against the Spaniard claiming another Wimbledon title too.
Nottingham
It wasn't to be a third Nottingham title in a row for Katie Boulter. She was a break up in the final set in the Quarter Final against the American McCartney Kessler but Kessler overcame the break and the crowd to secure a terrific win.
Kessler is another player who went down the college route so despite being a married woman who will be celebrating her 26th birthday during Wimbledon, she is a relatively new name on the tennis circuit but her rise up the rankings has been impressive.
She already had two WTA titles going into this even. Cleveland last year and Hobart at the beginning of this year. Straight sets win over Rebecca Sramkova in the semi final and Dayana Yastremska in the final ensured she would have a third title and also secured her a seeded spot for Wimbledon. McCartney is definitely one to watch.
FTL Results
Here is the final global FTL Table for the week
This has to go down as one of the more dominant victories of this season. Massive congrats to Stacey and team Tayla for winning the game week by a massive 60 clear points.
Lets take a look at their team
Tayla had both the Queens Champ Carlos Alcaraz as captain and crucially also the Halle Champ Bublik as a team player. In addition to that they had semi finalists Alexander Zverev and Jack Draper. Altogether a really strong team that was too good for the rest of the opposition this week. Congrats Stacey!!
Level 2 competition
The level 2 battle this week was a tight affair between with DJ_2025 outscoring the Matador by 11 points.
Congrats to David Josseljohn who is the weekly prize winner and also secured an FTL Cup win thanks to his solid performance this game week. DJ_2025 had Queens winner Alcaraz and Halle runner up Medvedev as well as semi finalists Sabalenka, Draper and Zverev. The Matador also had the same five players and actually had Alcaraz in a better captaincy sport but it was the poor return from KP Gauff which proved to be the most costly setback for them this week. Neverthess - a great week for both. Congrats to David and Bhumin!
