Game Week 22 and Game Week 23 Roundups

 

Falling a little bit behind on updates at the moment so I hope you folks don't mind a double header.  This blog will cover the 1000 events in Canada a couple of weeks ago and also lasts weeks 1000 events in Cincinnati.  There is also a good reason for doing so which will be evident in the results section.

What is clear at this stage of the season as there is still scope to make up a lot of places in the leaderboard (providing of course you pick the right team).  With Alcaraz and Sinner missing from these events and with a lot of volatility on the WTA side, the results are becoming far more difficult to predict.  Compare it to Sinner and Sabalenka both winning the sunshine double!

Have the last few weeks told us anything about the runners and riders for US Open success?  I think its fair to say that one or two players are finding their form and a few new contenders have emerged.

Toronto and Montreal 

Lets start with the carnage first.

On the ATP side the event was already weakened by the absence of Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic and shortly after lockout FAA became the latest casualty.   Top seed Alexander Zverev lost his opening match to Griekspoor, Fritz, perhaps tired from winning Washington was an early exit to Tirante and Medvedev, Cobolli and Rublev all lost their opening match!

On the WTA side, the only 2nd round exit was Wimbledon champ Linda Noskova suffering a surprising loss to Caty McNally but Mirra Andreeva fell in the following round and there were surprise four round losses for Sabalenka (to Alexandrova) and Pegula (to Diana Shnaider)

Hardly surprising that some teams were decimated before the Quarter Finals stage!

But this all opened the door of opportunity for other players.

It was a very youthful looking Quarter Final line up on  the men's side. Once again Jodar was impressing taking down Arthur Fils in the Quarter Finals and he was to be joined in the semi finals by a trio of young American talent.  Shelton and Tien in one semi final and Jodar's opponent was to be Brandon Nakashima.

Shelton came through comfortably against Tien and it was Nakashima that brought an end to the Jodar juggernaut this time round with a tight straight sets win.  Ben Shelton took down Nakashima in the final thereby securing his 4th title of the year and surely setting his stall out as a contender for US Open succes.

The WTA semi final lineup had a more familiar look about it despite the early carnage but at the same time it was a return to form for Swiatek, Gauff and Rybakina who had all struggled during the clay and grass swings.  Iga in particular had looked a shadow of her former self this season but she seemed to have the spark back in Canada.  She took down Svitolina in a tight semi final and was to face Elena Rybakina who defeated Coco in a potentially mouth watering final but in the end Iga won it quite comfortably.

Cincinnati 

ATP

Once again Sinner and Alcaraz were missing and once again the top seeds on the men's side all crumbled! Montreal champ Shelton couldn't back up his success in Canada and fell at the first hurdle to Portugal's Jamie Faria.  An out of sorts Djokovic succumbed to the head and an explosive Tirante in his opening match,  Zverev was a 4th Round casualty to Tommy Paul and a returning Felix was comfortably beaten by Tiafoe in the same round. 

The semi final line up was to feature 21st seed Arthur Fils against Flavio Cobolli (who was having one of his good weeks again!) and backing up his fantastic run in Canada, 27th seed Nakashima was to play 17th seed Frances Tiafoe who had impressed after his recent return from surgery for a cyst on his hand. Despite the rankings, all four must fancy their chances for deep runs in NY and potentially US Open glory.

It was Arthur Fils who was to take the title on this occasion though with dominant displays to take down Coboli in the semi final and Tiafoe in the final.

WTA

The big shock on the WTA side was once again Aryna Sabalenka. Yet another fourth round exit and this time it was the diminutive Sara Bejlek who was to prove the surprise package.  Yet another Czech making waves in the tennis world and she showed it was no fluke by backing it up with a win over Madison Keys in the Quarter Final to set up a semi final with Coco Gauff. 

Having met in the final in Toronto, it was a Quarter Final match up for Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina but unfortunately a worrying injury to Rybakina in the 1st set brought an early conclusion to that match and cast doubts on Rybakina's participation at the US Open which would be a great shame given her close proximity to No 1 status in the women's rankings.

The fairytale run of Sara Bejlek was to end with defeat to Coco Gauff and Iga couldn't follow up her Toronto success as she lost out to reliable Jess Pegula who always performs well during the North American hard court swing,  Still a great month for Iga and she'll go into the US Open with a new found confidence.

Coco turned on the style in the final and cruised to a comfortable win over Jess Pegula.

Perhaps the most remarkable story of the back to back Masters events was in Fantasy Tennis League as in the Global League we had a manager winning back to back Masters game weeks.

Massive congrats to Grand Slammajamma  (Jay) who won Canada with 732 points and then won Cincinatti with 720.199 points     

For Game Week 22, Jay had Montreal winner Ben Shelton as Captain and had both women's finalists Swiatek and Rybakina  as well as Osaka and Anisimova who both had great runs!

For Game Week 23, Jay made only two changes but they were inspired ones as he drafted in the two champions.  Osaka and Fernandez dropped out and Fils and Coco Gauff both moved into the KP slots!  Yet another good captain choice as well with Pegula reaching the final.

A remarkable couple of game weeks for Jay which must have given Grand Slammajamma a significant boost up the overall rankings table!

Of course the prizes for game weeks do go to level 2 participants so I'll finish off by taking a look at these tables.

Game Week 22

Congrats to Nachiket and Bazinga who took the Canadian Open honours.  Tennis Talk's very own Cam Williams finished 2nd and fitting that we have a Canadian representative in 3rd in the shape of Robert Rowat.    

Game Week 23

And congrats to Cleeve to takes the Cincy honours with Jamie and Faris running him closest.