Game Week 20 Roundup

 

Three first time winners on the tours this week.

In Kitzbuhel, Quentin Halys had a terrific week taking out 2nd seed Vacherot in the 2nd round and then beating Navone and Hanfmann to set up a final with the no 1 seed and defending champ Alexander Bublik.

Halys took the final in straight sets as Bublik was unable to defend either of the clay court titles he won in back to back weeks last year.

In Estoril it was Luca Van Assche who was the surprise package taking out no 1 seed and Andrey Rublev (who had just won Bastad the previous week).  He set up a final with the Belgian Alexander Blockx who had come through a remarkable series of three set battles against Jacquet, Burruchage and Darderi.

The final duly delivered and having lost the 1st set, it loooked like Blockx might just manage to pull off another comeback victory but Luca stood firm and took the final set 7-5.

Another youngster took the title in Prague.  Lilli Tagger is making waves on the WTA Tour and her one handed backhand is a thing of beauty. 

The quarter finals were stacked with home players. Valentova took down compatriot Bouzkova in three sets while Krejcikova (aiming for back to back titles) comfortably defeated Salkova while Tagger took out the 5th Czeck Bejlek.  

But by time we got to the final - the Czechs had all checked out.  Daria Sniger defeated Valentova and Tagger outlasted Krejcikova.   The 18 year old Austrian took the final against Ukrianian Snigur 7-6, 6-2.

We did get one home win this week in Hamburg,  Tamara Korpatsch has been playing some great tennis this season and is now the top ranked German on the WTA Tour!  It was an emotional week for her and she defeated Anna Bondar to win the title in her home city in front of the delighted fans.

Of all the winners this week Tamara was the only one to have been on the winners podium before. This was her 2nd title having won the Transylvanian Open in 2023.

Here is the global league table for the game week.  

Congrats to Melissa and Swift Team who romped to the Game Week win in the Global League finishing almost 30 points over 2nd placed Israel.

Here is her winning team

No winners in her team but a pretty strong week across her 8 strong team in a game week where many of us were really struggling to field any sort of team.   She had 2 finalists in Bondar and Bublik and another strong week from captain pick Barbora Krejcikova all contributed to an impressive total of 424 points.

In the level 2 contest, it was a lot tighter between 1st and 2nd.

Just over 2 points seperated Roger That and Keys to Victory!   But its congratulations to Mikhail who takes the level 2 honours this week.