I have attached the FTL Version of both the Mens and Womens Wimbledon Main Draw, and the Dark Horse Breakdown for each event. I've also added placed the Qualifiers into their respective Draws.
If you want a copy, click on the link, WIMBLEDON DRAWS. Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want
A massive congratulations go out to our 4 winners this week - Jessica Pegula, Yulia Putintseva, Tommy Paul and Jannik Sinner. It could be argued that none of these 4 players were the odds makers pick to win their respective event. Everyone had one thing in common coming into the event - not one of them had ever won a title on a grass court.
Jessica Pegula came into the season with incredibly high expectations, and sadly, she's had one of those seasons where whatever could wrong, seemingly has, so her victory this week almost sorta feels like some semblance of vindication for the past few months. I'd like to tell you that she easily ran thru one of those most talented 500 level (Berlin) fields in the WTA this season, but it couldn't be any further from the truth. In her first match of the week, she dispatched a gifted grass courter (Donna Vekic) in 2 tight sets and then from that point forward things got incredibly difficult and awkward. In order to make the final, she beat both Katerina Siniakova and her doubles partner (Coco Gauff). Playing both of them is difficult enough, but rain delays and postponements made things incredibly awkward as the 3rd set of her match with Siniakova got postponed until the next day, and a few hours after she dispatched Siniakova, Jessica was involved in a 2nd set tiebreak with Gauff when the rains came again and postponed the completion of their match until Sunday. Thankfully for Pegs, she was able to quickly dispatch Coco in the tiebreak, as the final was set to take place just 30 minutes after her SemiFinal was completed. Her victory over Kalinskaya in the final is a match that Anna would like to have back and will have nightmares about for some time. Anna led 4-1 in the 3rd set, and had 4 Match Points at 5-4, and another at 6-5, and yet, Jessica managed to beat her in the 3rd set tiebreak.
Yulia Putintseva has long been known as one of the biggest personalities on both the mens n womens tour. She's shown glimpses of some incredible tennis this season, but its hard to imagine that anyone saw this result coming. Coming into the event, she'd only won consecutive matches on a grass court once in her entire career, so for her to 5 straight this week is beyond impressive. The field in Birmingham was a few levels below the one in Berlin, but Yulia still played at a level that she'd never done so before on a grass court. On her way to the title, she beat Clara Burel, Anhelina Kalinina, Caroline Dolehide, Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Alja Tomljanovic.
When the Main Draw was posted in Queens, the focus from fans, analysts and everyone else was directly on the defending French Open and Wimbledon champion - Carlos Alcaraz. He had a tricky draw, but it was hard to imagine seeing anyone beating him this week, but thats why they play the matches inbetween the lines! After Jack Draper easily dispatched Carlos in straight sets, the draw was wide open for a Dark Horse to win the title, and in stepped Tommy Paul. His match with Jack Draper was easily the best match that was played in Queens this week, and once he got thru Jack, he beat both Sebastian Korda and a surprise finalist (Lorenzo Musetti) in straight sets. Tommy's victory this week puts him as the top ranked American in the ATP Rankings for the first time in his career. It will be interesting to see how he fares in a few days in Wimbledon.
Jannik Sinner won his 4th title of the year in Halle. As a result of his victory and Alcaraz's early loss, his lead in the rankings has ballooned to an incredible 1500 points!. I know, I know, I said earlier that no player won a title who was considered the fave coming in, but we have to keep this in mind, Jannik had never made a final in a grass court event, and Halle also had 3 other top tier grass court players (Zverev, Hurkacz, Medvedev) and the defending Champion (Rublev) in the mix. Nothing about Jannik's week was easy as he was forced to a 3rd set in both the first (Griekspoor) and second (Marozsan) round before having to beat Jan Lennard Struff in a 3rd set tiebreak in the QF. He beat both Zhizhen Zhang and Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets, but he was forced to win 3 tiebreaks in the process. Jannik's stats for the season are borderline ridiculous and if continues, we'll be comparing his season to the top of the sport, but we have a long ways to go. The next question is, can he win Wimbledon? Its a safe bet that there will be plenty a wager bet on him to do so.
There are plenty of great stories this week, but its hard to discuss this week without discussing the incredible carnage that was the 500 level event in Berlin. Anna Kalinskaya had one of the craziest week's you'll ever see, as she beat the defending Wimbledon Champion, Marketa Vondrousova, via midmatch retirement as she slipt and fell. She then beat the 2024 Aussie Open Champion, Aryna Sabalenka, via midmatch retirement due to a shoulder injury, and in the SF, she beat a multi-time Slam Champion, Victoria Azarenka, who could barely walk during the 3rd set. In all there were 4 midmatch retirements in Berlin this week - all of which are highly favoured to do well at Wimbledon. What does this mean for Wimbledon, its hard to say, but it does pose some major question marks and may in fact open some doors for something major to happen.
In terms of FTL, our website genius, Jeremy - Kalininasaurus Rex 🦖, is having one of those years!! Coming into the season, he'd never won a GameWeek or a Month, and after his victory this week, he's now won 2 GameWeeks and a Month!! Massive Congratulations. If you ever want to learn how to win a week - apparently all it takes is to have 3 of the 4 winners in your lineup for the week lol
Thanks to having Jannik Sinner as his Captain, and Jessica Pegula and Tommy Paul as Team Players, Jeremy's team amassed a ridiculous 446.698 points for the week. He didnt have a single player lose in Round 1, and was lucky enough to only have 1 player retire midmatch in Berlin (LOL)
No one else was within 20 points of Jeremy, but I'd still like to give Leonard Vandorpe (Serve Squad), Vladimir Jovanovsk (The Macedonian), Mathieu Mermoud (New Cal Aces) and Pete Schaumann (Bullseye) kuddos for finishing inside the top 5.
Leonard had his best ever finish, but he's probably still crying into his beer and wondering about what could have or hell what should have been, as he had 3 midmatch withdrawals in Berlin. If Sabalenka or Jabeur are able to play thru whatever was ailing them and come thru, he ends up with the victory. The fact that he had Jessica Pegula as his ER1, is beyond painful as well. (I'll be honest, I feel the pain of that manneuvre as well)
Congrats to One Hip Wonder (Lou) for the game week win. Lou finished on 453 points which was 12 points clear of Bagels and Breadsticks (Sam Glanz) in 2nd place.
Bennay (Ben Cosgrove), The Champs (Mark Sab) and Abdi Pasha (Augusto) make up the top 5.
Here is the head to head between the top 2 teams.
These two brush up pretty well don't they and both of them brushed up the opposition on the claycourts of Roland Garros.
Iga Swiatek seemed a safe bet for the title but it could have been soooo different as she very nearly lost to an inspired Naomi Osaka in her opening match. Naomi could and probably should have won! That was perhaps the fright that Iga was needing though and there was no looking back after that as she cruised through the competition in double quick time making light work of Jasmine Paolini in the final. Reaching the final itself was a huge achiement for the likeable Italian who is having an inspired season and is now a top 10 player.
There was a lot of concern about the fitness or Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner for the French Open prompting many of us to leave one or both out our teams. We needn't have worried as both looked fresh and on form from the off and would ultimately set up a semi final showdown where Carlos was to prevail.
Alexander Zverev went into the final with high hopes of winning his first Grand Slam final and looked in a great place when he was leading 2 sets to 1 but Carlos took total control in sets 4 and 5 to win his first RG final. His 3rd Grand Slam at such a young age.
So to FTL and here are the final standings for the French Open where of course some big points were to be made in the ranking chase.
I think we are a bit behind on our Game Week updates so these are going to be short and sweet i'm afraid.
Game Week 14 saw the following champs
Casper Ruud defeated Tomáš Macháč in the final of Geneva.
Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the final of Lyon for his maiden title.
Madison Keys defeated Danielle Collins in the final of Strasbourg
Peyton Stearns defeated Mayar Sherif in the final of Rabat.
Here are the final game week standings
