A tricky couple of weeks for FTL. Seemed like most of the tour were either getting married or taking a break. For reasons best known to themselves, the ATP like to have a brief return to the clay before we move on the North American hard court swing. So FTLers were left with the dilemma on whether to splurge out on trades on players that they may not need long term.
There is always the danger in these game weeks that the top seeds bomb and in the case of Ruud, Bublik and Cobolli - they did!!
Ok quick run through the finals then.
ATP Bastad - Two top players who delivered here. Andrey Rublev was back to winning ways winning the title 6-4, 6-3 over the hot headed Luciano Darderi.
ATP Gstaad - Another player back to winning ways - Stefanos Tsitsipas won a tight three setter against the Belgian Raphael Collignon. Don't go back to your Dad ever again Stef!
ATP Umag - Daniel Merida took the title her against Damir Dzumhur.
WTA Athens - Another excellent win for Barbora Krejcikova as the Czechs continue to grap all the trophies these days. Home favourite Maria Sakkari came up just short in the final.
WTA Iasi - This final got rolled over to the Monday due to rain, And its a win for Egypt - as Mayar Sherif took the title following a 2nd set retiral from Paula Badosa. Good couple of weeks for Paula having won a lower tier event in Bastad the previous week. Rumours that the match was called off early on the Sunday to allow Paula to watch the world cup final are unfounded!
Here is the Global table for the game week.
Just out of curiosity, could you please tell me which of the players got married?
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I don't care about their personal lives, but there's a limit as to how much info I can take in on a daily basis. There are a lot of things happening in the world every second, it's impossible to keep up with everything.
Lots of things = lots of news
Lots of news = lots of information
Lots of information = bad for the brain
I don't use social media nor do I read tabloid gossip news.
I'm a tennis fan - I watch matches and follow scores. And that's about it :)
Sherif had an amazing week in Iasi. She managed to get some nice wins under her belt. Well deserved tournament win. I'm happy for her.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday, big drama queen Badosa retired in the final against Sherif because she was apparently injured.
2 days later she defeated Kawa in Hamburg in an almost 2 hour match. No sign of injury whatsoever.
The next day she won against Udvardy in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Still no sign of injury.
The next day she played against Sherif again. 3 sets, 3 hours and 30 minutes. No sign of injury at all!
This time around Badosa managed to win a set and didn't fake an injury to retire, but Sherif was still the better player in 3 sets.
Princess Osaka also did something very similar: she retired in the final against Muchova for no reason and a few days later she was 100% fit and healthy and had a very impressive run at Wimbledon!
Yes, and ironically Osaka played against Muchova again at Wimbledon haha!
DeleteThis time around Osaka played a little bit better so she didn't have to fake an injury and retire, but Muchova was still the better player and won.
Badosa wasn't injured in the final against Sherif. She simply didn't have any solutions against a superior opponent so she choose the easy way out.
The bottom line is simple: whenever defeat is inevitable, it's best to play the injury card and retire. This way you can leave the court as the fallen hero who got unlucky with an injury and everyone will feel sorry for you.
However, if you stay on court and finish the match, you will lose badly and make a fool out of yourself.
A few days ago Tiafoe retired against Rinderknech at Montreal for no reason, other than not having any solutions against a superior opponent. Same as Badosa vs Sherif.
Darderi retired for no reason in his first match after only a few games in Los Cabos, Mexico. Next week he had a pretty impressive run in Montreal.
And the list of fake injury retirements whenever defeat is inevitable goes on forever :)
P.S. "Don't go back to your Dad ever again Stef!" - or Badosa for that matter 😁