Game Week 28 Champions
WTA 1000 Beijing - Amanda Anisimova
ATP 500 Beijing - Jannik Sinner
ATP 500 Tokyo - Carlos Alcaraz
2025 just keeps getting better and better for Amanda Anisimova. It began so well when she won the WTA 1000 title in Qatar in February. She followed that up by reaching slam finals at both Wimbledon and the US Open (ensuring her place at the year end finals) and she followed that all up by taking another 1000 title in Beijing.
There is no doubt she is the form player on tour right now and she'll go into the year end finals as one of the favourites. Most of us will know the personal struggles Amanda had to deal with and the fact that she took a prolonged break from the game, so its great to see that she is now back not only competing but fulfilling the potential that the tennis world knew she had.
Amanda didn't have the easiest route either. She came from a set down to beat Muchova in Round 4 and again from a set down to beat Paolini in the Quarter Finals. It was surprisingly straightforward in the semi final against Coco Gauff who is still a work in progress at the moment as she attempts to bring technical changes to her game.
Beijing had some other good stories too. Eva Lys defeated Elena Rybakina and McCartney Kessler and Sonay Kartal defeated Mirra Andreeva as they secured places in the Quarter Finals. But the other standout player of the week was Linda Noskova (still remarkably only 20) who managed to edge Jess Pegula in a titanic semi final battle.
Amanda dominated the opening set against Noskova - a bagel no less but Noskova stormed back in the 2nd set taking it 6-2. It was Amanda who was to prevail though leaving Noskova having to wait a little longer for her first title at this level but it feels like it won't be long .....until the Noskova era begins!
As for the guys - well those two are just getting annoying now. Sinner and Alcaraz seems to be dividing up the spoils between them at the moment. I mean you would think with two 500 events going on they could at least pick the same one to play in and give the other guys a chance but nope, they weren't having any of that - both wanted their 500 points.
There was a little bit of a fright for Carlos in his opening match against Baez in Tokyo when he turned his foot awkwardly and it did genuinely appear he would not be able to continue. But despite the advice of his team, Carlos was not having it - got his foot taped up and played and won the match...and the rest is history. Ruud pushed him to three sets in the semi final but the final itself was a straight forward 6-4, 6-4 win over Fritz gaining revenge for the Laver Cup loss.
It wasn't entirely straightforward to Jannik Sinner in Beijing either. He dropped a set in his 2nd Round match against the inspired Terence Atmane who increasingly look like one to watch for next year and another set was dropped against the tenacious Alex De Minaur in the semi final. Alex is having the best season of his career and should be a fun addition to the year end finals.
On the other side of the draw it was all about Lerner Tien who is definitely the breakout star of 2025. He has such an excellent game and a very level headed attitude to life and no doubt there is a lot more to come from him. In Beijing he came back from behind to score victories over Cerundolo in the 1st round, Musetti in the Quarters and a cramping Medvedev in the semi finals.
The score in the final of 6-2, 6-2 looks pretty straightforward for Sinner and perhaps shows how far Tien has to go to compete at the very top level. Nevertheless his performance was admirable and the margin of defeat didn't really reflect how much he pushed Jannik,
Here are the final standings in the Global League for Game Week 28
