Winners from left to right (win
ATP Houston Tommy Paul,
WTA Bogota Marie Bouzkova
ATP Marrakech Rafael Jodar
WTA Charleston Jess Pegula
ATP Bucharest Mariano Navone
Game Week 8 gave us plenty of entertainment and storylines, its difficult to know where to begin.
WTA Charleston
Lets start with the WTA 500 event in Charleston where Jess Pegula was defending the title she won in 2025. Jess has been on terrific form this season having won the WTA 1000 event in Dubai and she got to the Quarter Finals of both the Sunshine Doubles event so she went into Charleston as a popular pick and favourite to win the event.
In 2026, Jess decided to take the scenic route to the final. Right from her opening match she found herself on the backfoot against the tricky Putintseva but she came back from losing the 1st set and significant deficits in set 2 and set 3 to prevail. It was the same story in her next match against Cocciaretto. She lost the first set 6-1 but bounced back by the same margin in set 2 before again trailing in set 3 before finally getting over the line in a tie break. Again in her 4th Round match, she lost the 1st set to Diana Shnaider but bounced back to contine the defence of her title. In the semi final against talented youngster Iva Jovic, Jess changed the script a little and won the 1st set but once again her opponent came after her, taking the 2nd set and going a break up in the 3rd set before Jess took control. And so miraculously Jess found herself in the final but she had used up a few lives in the process.
Her opponent in the final would be Yulia Starodubtseva, a Ukranian player who has had to fight her way through the lower rankings of WTA tennis for some time but 2026 seems to be a real breakout year for her. Yulia had already been two Americans (Kessler and Keys) en route to the final but she was no match for Pegula in the final as Jessica saved her best performance of the week till last scoring a convincing 6-2, 6-2 victory.
ATP Houston
Another American leading a charmed life this week was Tommy Paul in Houston. Tommy came from a set down in hs opening match against Vallejo and he had the rub of the green in his semi final against Frances Tiafoe where a couple of fortunate bounces made all the difference in a tight final set tie break.
His opponent in the final was to be Ramon Burruchaga (who's father Jorge scored the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 World Cup Final). Burruchaga has already taken out three Americans (Damm, Nakashima and Tien) before crushing his compatriot Tirante in the semi final.
Burruchaga would have gone into the final as the underdog and the writing seemed on the wall after Paul raced to the first set 6-1. But Burrachaga bounced back taking the 2nd set and found himself serving for the match at 5-3 in the decider. Three match points came and went before Paul broke back and from there he would go on to turn the set in his favour taking it 7-5. The Argentinian was understandably distraught.
ATP Bucharest
It was better news for another Argentinian Mariano Navone as he won his first ATP title at the third attempt. He was actually runner up at the Tiriac Open in 2024 so his victory over the qualifer Daniel Merida would have felt sweet. Navone had come from a set down to bear Molcan in the quarters and Van de Zandschulp in the semis and he needed three sets again in the final running out a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 winner.
ATP Marrakech
At the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech is was a tale of young and old.
Marco Trungelliti (another Argentian) had a sensational week for a player who at the age of 36 had never even been in the top 100. He set that right in Marrakech and not only that, he went one step further with a remarkable win over the top seed Luciano Darderi in the semi final to make his first ATP final setting all sorts of records in the process.
On the other side of the draw it was a youngster that was making waves. Rafael Jodar may be familiar to some of you after his impressive appearance at the next gen finals last year and he has been playing pretty well on the main tour this season. This was a breakout tournament for him. He stood out in this event due to his fearless aggressive brand of tennis which shocked opponents more used to grinding in long rallies on the clay.
Jodar was just too much for poor old Trungelliti in the final, cruising to a dominant 6-3, 6-2 win. Jodar was also a popular pick this week in FTL
WTA Bogota
The WTA event in Colombia has developed a cult like status and has been dubbed the Bogota slam. FTLers are well aware of the history of the event and the dominance held there by home favourite Camila Osorio (3 titles) and veteran German Tatjana Maria (2 titles)
So, many FTL Managers will automatically lock in Osorio for this game week with some even captaining her. Some went with Maria due to her credentials and some others also picked the other Colombian favourite Arango.
Easy points right? Not this year - Osorio (possibly hampered by injury) managed to struggle through her first match but was shockingly bounced out in a fairly feeble display against the Argentinian qualifier Jazmin Ortenzi. Tatjana went out at the same stage to the dangerous Pole Katerzyna Kawa.
Easy to say in retrospect but for many of us it was pure folly to overlook the no 1 seed - Marie Bouzkova who lived up to her ranking by cruising to the final where she would meet the Hungarian Panna Udvardy. Udvardy surprised her by taking the first set but Bouzkova came back and would eventually prevail 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. Those that were wise enough to select Marie were rewarded handsomely.
Here are the Global League Standings for the Game Week
Massive congrats to Swift Team (Melissa) who were top of the pile this week with 499 points with Smashing Pumpkins (Igor Masa) the best of the rest. Here is the head to head between the two.
Both teams had 3 of the winners in an incredible week. Melissa captained Pegula and also had Bouzkova and Jodar. Igor (who remarkably achieved his total while only being able to field 6 players) had Bouzkova as Captain and Navone and Jodar with decent back up from semi finalists Jovic and Darderi.
Congrats to the level 2 prize winner Hail to the Victors (Greg) who just pipped the OG Stanimals (Preston) to the game week prize.
Greg had three winners backing Pegula as Captain and also had Tommy Paul and Rafa Jodar. Preston also had three winners with Bouzkova, Paul and the inspired pick of Starodubtseva.
