A quiet week for FTL in the immediate aftermath of the US Open. It was a Davis Cup weekend so there were no men's events so it was just two WTA events in Brazil and Mexico before the Tours move on to the Asian swing.
In Guadalaja Marta Kostyuk was the top seed but after getting a walkover on her opening match, she went down in three sets to Samsonova and there were subsequently injury concerns for Marta which gives some cause for concern for the rest of her season.
With Marta out, defending champ Iva Jovic became red hot favourite to win the title and she duly obliged cruising through the event without dropping an event. Sonmez, Frech and Bucsa were all despatched before she secured a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win over Peyton Stearns to win the trophy and that covered Sombrero!
In Sao Paolo, top seed Leylah Fernandez caused considerable FTL consternation when she withdrew shortly before lockout. Many FTLers were unable to reverse trades in time to switch up their teams. As it turned out they needn't have worried too much as those that retained her benefitted from her switch to the event in Singapore which of course she ended up winning, Alls well that ends well.
But i've stepped forward into the future there - hopefully not a spoiler for anyone whose only source of tennis news is this blog! Leylah's withdrawal really opened up an opportunity for some of the lesser lights competing in Sao Paulo to step up and perhaps winner a maiden WTA title.
Turned out it was Nadia Podoroska of Argentina and Kaitlin Quevedo of Spain who put themselves in that position. Podoroska (many of you will remember her reaching the French Open semi final in 2020) had an excellent week. Coming in on a protected ranking, she beat Lys, Lamens and Badosa en route to the final.
Quevedo meanwhile had a slightly easier route with wins over Kostovic in the Quarter Final and newly adopted Frenchwoman Anna Blinkova in the semi finals.
It was to be the 20 year old Quevedo who prevailed after dropping the first set, taking the title and moving up to a career high ranking of 73. One to watch!
Here is the Global FTL table for Game Week 26
Plenty of you managed to field a strong team but it was John O'Mara and Wasaga Beach Warriors who were the stand out act this week with a terrific total of 361.508 points, over 30 points clear of the chasing pack which included I Just came to say yellow (Lukas), Grylla's slicing moonballers (Elin) and Grass Court Masters (Violet). Well done to all.
John's team was fantastic.
But for the late withdrawal of Leylah Fernandez, John would have been fielding 8 players. As it turned out Leylah's contribution was in the post for the following week.
Remarkably John had three of the four finalists - Jovic and Stearns in Guadalajara and perhaps most impressively the unheralded Kaitlin Quevedo who finally came good for him in Sao Paulo. Kostyuk, Beklek, Lys and Tjen all played relatively minor supporting roles but helped take John's score well over 300!
Congrats John!
