A busy FTL week with a joint ATP/WTA 500 event in Washington and two 250 events - the women competing in Memphis and the men competing in Los Cabos and once again we had some remarkable storylines.
In Washington we had two experienced US competitors taking on the best of the new crop of young players. Both finals had to be completed on the Monday after heavy rain on finals Sunday.
Taylor Fritz had already edged past two American young pretenders in the shape of Alex Michelsen and Brandon Nakashima in close three set matches. But in the final the level of opposition was raised further with breakout Spanish star Rafa Jodar providing the opposition. Jodar had himself come back from a set down in his quarter final against Musetti and again in his semi final versus Tabilo.
But it was Fritz who was to prevail 7-6, 6-4 to cap off a satisfying week for the American who has had his fair share of fitness issues this season.
In the woman's final, the ever reliable Jessica Pegula faced Alex Eala of the Phillipines who continues to pack stadiums wherever she plays. Pegula had only dropped one set en route to the final at the hands of Magda Frech in her opening match and the same was true of Eala who came from behind against Qinwen Zheng in the 1st round before scoring impressive wins over Fernandez, Svitolina and Osaka.
The match did commence on the Sunday as planned with Pegula taking a one set lead but when they returned on the Monday to complete the match, everything flipped. Eala came out with purpose and drive while Pegula was surprisingly off her game. Eala came back to secure a 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory and became the first Filipino to win a Tour Level singles final.
The field may have been weaker in Memphis but the storyline was even more remarkable. 16 year old Kristina Liutova would no doubt have been a new name to most of us this week. She has been performing impressively on the lower tiers of women's tennis and had earned the right this week to have a crack at a tour level event.
She couldn't have been handed a harder draw. Top seed and compatriot Ekaterina Alexanrova has not been at her best this year but was a favourite to win this event. But in the heat, Kristina outlasted Alexandrova who eventually had to retire when she was on the brink of defeat due to apparent heat stroke.
The rest is history, Liutova took down Maya Joint, Caty McNally and Kalieva to set up a final against another surprise package in the shape of Darja Vidmanova. Despite losing the first set, Liutova bouced back to secure a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 win. Liutova became the first player born in the 2010s to win a WTA Tour singles title, the youngest player to win a tour-level singles title since Coco Gauff in 2019, and the first to win a tour-level singles title on their main draw debut since Maria Timofeeva.
We had another young first time winner in Los Cabos. Arther Gea defeated definding champ Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 6-4 in the final.
Here are the final standings for the game week.
Congrats to Dalisvolleys (Jim Ackerman) who is this weeks winner in a very close contest with Holy Tigers (Vlad)
Here is the head to head between the two teams.
Both teams had both Washington Champs - Fritz and Eala. Vlad also had bother runner ups in Pegula and Jodar. Jim also had inspired pick with Arther Gea (Los Cabos) winner and also had Pegula. Two very strong sides who were well clear of the rest of the chasing pack in this game week.
