FTL Cup Round 3

 Here is the draw for Round 3 of the FTL Cup

This round will be played during Game Week 16

The schedule for the remaining rounds is below:

Game Week 13 Roundup

 

ah,,,,,game week 13.    Wasn't it nice to get away from the glitz and glam of the Masters events, away from the tedious inevitability of carrot head winning again and get back to some proper tennis!

A week of smaller events, of random names, of withdrawals galore and of unpredictability.  Pure FTL chaos - everything we love about FTL.  The perfect week to have a cup week if you ask me although not everyone agreed!

Lets do them in order of our champs from left to right.

ATP Geneva  (winner Learner Tien)

Just the 6 withdrawals from Geneva but not the significant one we were all expecting.   After reaching the final in Rome, I think many of us expected that Casper Ruud would choose not to come and defend his title in Geneva.  He had been played some excellent tennis in Madrid and Rome and it seemed logical that he would choose to rest up before his favourite slam.  

But nope, Casper turned up and not only that he won a few matches too before finally coming undone in the semi finals at the hands of Argentinian Mariano Navone who is having an excellent clay court swing.

On the other side of the draw Learner Tien was showing that he'd learned a few claycourt skills from coach Michael Chang.  He started off with a 2nd Round win over wild card Stefanos Tsitsipas and then followed that up with hard 3 set wins over his buddy Michelsen and then Alexander Bublik in the semi finals.

If I was a betting man I would still have gone for Navone in the final but despite losing the 1st set, it was Learner Tien who came out on top 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to win his first ATP title on clay. Those hard fought wins on a surface that he had hitherto struggled on set him up nicely for Roland Garros.

WTA Rabat (winner Petra Marcinko)

The next champ in our anime depiction is a certain Petra Marcinko, a 20 year old talent from Croatia. Tennis fans have been quietly talking up Petra for the last couple of years and she has steadily been moving up the ranking without setting the heather alight but she certainly chose this tournament to show off her talent. 

This was a tough tournament to call.  Janice Tjen the top seed isn't entirely at home on the clay and she went down in the 2nd Round to a more seasoned clay courter in Camila Osorio who herself then lost surprisingly to Anna Bondar. Third seed Tatjana Maria seemed to have a great draw facing a couple of local players in the opening rounds but succumbed to the 2nd of those opponents Yasmine Kabbaj who in truth performed magnificently in this event.

Perhaps two of the favourites for the event Anna Bondar and Anhelina Kalinina met in the quarter final and it was the Ukranian who came out on top - she's always a threat on the clay if she can stay injury free.

And then there no 2 seed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. JBM would face Marcinko in the quarter finals and she was blown away by the aggresive hitting of the young Croat - everything seemed to land.

In the semi finals Kalinina trounced Udvardy and Marcinko took down Teichmann to set up an interesting final.  Marcinko dominated the first set 6-2 and sadly at 3-0 in the 2nd set, Kalinina had to retire due to blisters.

ATP Hamburg  (Ignacio Buse) 

You know that Franki Valli song - I love you baby (Can't take my eye Off you). Dang songs been in my head all week thanks to Ignacio's Buse's team serenading him during the winner's press conference in Hamburg,   "Ig-na-cio-Bu-se, na-na-na-na-na-na, Ig-na-cio-Bu-se......."  I hope it's in your head now.  

But what a week it was the Peruvian. Now, i'm gonna blow my own trumpet a bit here but when I saw he has cruised through his 2 qualy matches for the lost of just 5 games, I was telling everyone on our chat forum, this guy is gonna be a problem this week but did i pick him.  Nope!!

And a problem has became. First round draw Coboli - it had to be didn't it.  Many FTLers had Coboli as you never know where he quite is in the win-a-title, 1st-round-flop cycle he is but in fairness to Flavio this was a rough daw and Buse despatched him 6-2, 7-5.

The 2nd Round was a statement win. A humbling of the talented Jakub Mensik for just 3 games while on the same side of the draw Kovacevic pulled off a surprise win over FAA.  Buse then pulled off a hard fought win over Humbert and a routine win over Kovacevic followed and found himself  in the final. 

On the other side of the draw 2nd seed Shelton managed to scramble through his 1st match but couldn't repeat the trick against the impressive Daniel Altmaier who just loves to humble top ranked players on the clay. Alex De Minaur (a late wild card for the event replacing home fave Alex Zverev) was finally finding a bit of form on the red stuff. He followed up and impressive opening round win over Cerundolo, with a win over Davidovich Fokina and a humbling of Luciano Darderi (who may have been tired from his impressive in run in Rome the previous week).  But ADM finally came undone against Tommy Paul in the semi final.

Tommy was looking to secure his 2nd clay court title of the year having already won in Houston but there was stopping Buse who won a closely fought three setter to win his first ATP title.  TP took it well and was kind enough to show Ignacio the ropes when it came to uncorking a champagne bottle before spraying his all over his young student!

WTA Strasbourg (Emma Navarro)

OK last up WTA Strasbourg and another surprise winner in the shape of Emma Navarro.

Its been a tough season for Emma. She lost a lot of matches early in the year and her ranking suffered. She was then out for some time with an undisclosed illness so it was good to see her back on the clay where she can play some of her best tennis and not only that she was playing great.

In the 2nd round she faced the impressive American youngster Iva Jovic who has shown herself to be pretty handy on the red stuff this season and was probably one of the favourites for this event. They shared the first two sets but surprisingly Navarro romped the 3rd set and showed that she was very much back as a force to be reckoned with. Wins over Zhang Shuai and Ann Li followed as Emma secured a spot in the final.

On the other side of the draw we had another young talent in the shape of Canadian Victoria Mboko who was top seed for this event. One of the biggest young talents in the game at the moment, the tennis world was keen to see how Mboko's game would hold up on the clay.  Pretty well it seems!  Mboko took down last years French Open semi finalist Lois Boisson in the 2nd Round then followed that with a comfortable win over fellow Canadian Leylah Fernandez and a more hard fought battle against Jacquelin Crisitan.

In the final Navarro came storming out the blocks taking the first set 6-0 but Mboko showed that fighting spirit she is becoming known for to take the 2nd set 7-5 before Navarro closed it out to secure a title which will no doubt mean a lot to her after a tough time.

This was a chaotic week in FTL and for those who selected the right players it proved to be a great opportunity to make up some serious points. Here are a few of the FTLers who struck gold in game week 13.

Global Weekly table  

    

Massive congrats to mtl89 (Kevin G)  and Grylla's slicing moonballers (Elin Bondal) who both had an astonishing week and really separated themselves from the pack.  

Lets take a look at the head to head between the two.

Both Kevin and Elin had Hamburg runner up Tommy Paul, Rabat runner up Anhelina Kalinina and Strasbourg rnner up Victoria Mboko.  In fact Elin had the full set of runner ups as she had Mariano Navone in Geneva. 

But only one of them had a winner and that was Kevin with Emma Navarro so perhaps that was the main difference between the two sides which secured the game week for Kevin.

So congrats to Kevin and Elin and everyone else who made up some ground on the season table in Game Week 13.

Altogether now

"Ig-na-cio-Bu-se, na-na-na-na-na-na, Ig-na-cio-Bu-se......."