Beware: Half-Blind Lockouts Are Coming 🙈

Heads up: we have a few "half-blind" lockouts coming our way in the next few Game Weeks. All ATP tournaments will be starting on Wednesdays up to and including Shanghai.

That means this coming GW28 will probably hit lockout before the ATP draws are available (WTA Starts Monday in Seoul).

Then WTA moves to a Wednesday start the following GW for Beijing, so GW29 should be "normal" (aside from it being on a Wednesday).

And then it's the WTA's turn to have a blind lockout with Wuhan being included with ATP Shanghai for GW30 -- but Wuhan doesn't start until the following Monday! (Sorry, but that was the only feasible way to do the GW schedule for FTL.) 

Personally, I like the added "spice" of having an occasional unknown draw. Sure it's frustrating and difficult to decide who you should play in your team, but it also makes it more interesting to have a bit more variety among the FTL rosters. Which risks are you willing to take, and what will your reward be?

Good luck, have fun!

Game Week 27 and Game Week 28 entry lists

Just a reminder that GW27 is a WTA only week with only two events taking place.

We have an entry list for Guadalajara but only a few names for the Jasmin Open event in Tunisia.

The Jasmin Open have announced:

Elise Mertens

Sara Sorribes Tormo

Clara Burel

Diane Barry

Greet Minnen

Mayar Sherif

Lucia Bronzetti

Jacqueline Cristian

Here are all the other upcoming events

GW27  WTA Guadalajara

GW28  ATP Chengdu

GW28 ATP Hangzhou

GW28 WTA Hua Hin

GW28 WTA Korea 

Player schedules - can be viewed here:

ATP and WTA schedule 2024 - Google Sheets

US OPEN DRAWS AND DARK HORSE BREAKDOWN

I have attached the FTL Version of both the Mens and Womens US OPEN Main Draw, and the Dark Horse Breakdown for each event. Please note that both the Mens and Womens Qualifiers and Lucky Losers have been placed as well.

 

If you want a copy, click on the link, US OPEN DRAWS  Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want

Good Luck :)

CINCINNATI RESULTS

 Huge kuddos goes to both of our winners this week - Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner.

Our winners have a few things in common.

• Both were forced to skip the Olympics
• Due to injury, neither of them have looked quite right for a few months
  
• Interestingly enough, both of them won the Aussie Open earlier this year! 

 

Aryna Sabalenka's victory in Cincinnati was nothing short of dominant.  Not only did she not lose a set all week, but she made Samsonova, Swiatek and Pegula look uncomfortable and helpless.  Its been quite some time since we've seen Aryna look this dominant, so it will be interesting to see if she can continue this level at the US Open.  Realistically speaking, if her nerves don't get the best of her in last years US Open final, we would be discussing the possibility of her defending her title in a couple of weeks.

Jannik Sinner's victory in Cincinnati was the furthest thing from dominant.  In fact, just days before the start of Cincinnati, there was plenty of discussion as to whether or not Jannik was even going to play.  He's been struggling with a hip injury ever since the start of the clay court season and hasn't looked right since Miami.  All that being said, every time he's entered an event this year, he's reached at least the QF.  Jannik's level this week wasn't anywhere near close to what it was in Miami, but it still didn't matter.  It was impossible not to notice that he was struggling with his hip, and he was hitting more unforced errors on simple rally balls, but it still didn't matter as he found a way to win the big points when it mattered most.  Michelsen outplayed him for big stretches in his first match, n still didnt win a set.  Rublev (who beat him the week previous in Montreal) outplayed him for big stretches, but Sinner dominated the final couple of sets after losing the first.  Zverev was the better player for significant stretches, but Sinner was the far better player in the big moments of both Tiebreaks, and as a result Jannik made the Finals.  Tiafoe gave Sinner serious problems in the first set, but Jannik found a way to win it in a tiebreak, and that was it.  Jannik is the #1 player in the world for a reason right now, as he's able to win matches and tournaments even without playing anything close to his best.  He'll be a tough tough out at the US Open, but I'm not sure if I'd classify him as the favourite over either Djoker or Alcaraz.

I'd like to offer some huge kuddos to our finalists as well - Frances Tiafoe and Jessica Pegula.  Frances is an incredibly talented player thats had an absolutely horrific season.  He looks like he's finally starting to turn it around just in time for the US Open.  Him hiring Jessica Pegula's old coach, David Witt, is probably a big part of his resurgence.  Frances had an incredible week as he beat 3 top 15 players (Musetti, Hurkacz, and Rune) and 2 other incredibly talented players (Davidovich Fokina and Lehecka).  He beat both Lehecka and Rune in 3rd set tiebreaks.  Safe to say this week should help his confidence going forward.  After winning the Canadian Open in Toronto, Jessica Pegula seemed to be on fumes all week, but still managed to make the final this week.  Aryna was dominant in the final, but its a safe bet that Jessica can take plenty out of her week as she beat Muchova, Leylah Fernandez and Paula Badosa.

In terms of FTL, this week was an absolute nightmare for many an FTL Manager as every time you turned around, a top player lost in Round 1.  In fact, our Overall Leader (when the week started) (Tricia - Prepare for CzechMate) had 6 players (Alcaraz, Rybakina, Medvedev, Gauff, Fritz, Arnaldi) lose in Round1!!!

 

I'd like to offer a huge kuddos to Flo (Micro Tennis) for his victory this week.  He somehow managed to accumulate 653.67 points this week!  To highlight how rare this point total is, he won the week by 80+ points and beat our previous Overall Leader by nearly 330 points! Its hard to believe that he did this while having 2 players lose in Round 1! - Grigor Dimitrov and his DH (Matteo Arnaldi).  Otherwise his week was truly special as he had both winners selected as a KP.  He also had a TP (Pegula) make the Finals and also had his Captain (Swiatek) and his other KP (Zverev) make the Semi's.   Its Flo's first every event Win, so I'm sure he'll be cherishing this result for quite some time!!

Christopher Powell (Titanium Pigment), Mike P (San Diego All-Stars), Tosh (Love Means Nothing to Me) and Cam Williams (Tennis Talk) round out our top 5.  Sadly, the event winner was decided before the Finals had even started.  Its also interesting to note that they were the only 4 managers that were within a 100 points of our winner!

Game Week 23 (Canadian Open) Results

     

Popyrin and Pegula hit purple patch to land Canadian Open titles!

Its crazy that we've had 6 Masters 1000 events this year in the ATP and 6 different winners.  In fact, Montreal runner up Andrey Rublev is the only player to have featured in two of those finals.

But there is no doubt, that the most surprising of all of those winners was Alexei Popyrin.  Alexei has always been a decent player but he has definitely upped his level in these last 2 years which has seen him really push up the rankings. He beat five quality players to reach the final  (Machac, Shelton, Dimitrov, Hurkacz and Korda) and his performance against Rublev in the final was exceptional.

On the WTA side, it was a cracking week for American tennis in Toronto with five US players reaching the quarter finals (Pegula, Stearns, Navarro, Townsend and Anisimova).  Ultimately it was two players with a point to prove who reached the final.  

Jess Pegula had a difficult start to the season with injury and was desperately in need a big tournament win to resurrect her hopes of getting to the year end tour finals. Retaining her Canadian Open title has given her a huge boost and she has to be considered one of the contenders at the upcoming US Open. 

And its great to see Amanda Anisimova competing at the top level again after all she's been through with her personal life and injury.  She is absolutely a threat to any player when she is playing at her best as evidenced by the way she took down Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter finals.

Jessica and Amanda served up an entertaining final but ultimately it was Pegula who prevailed in 3 sets.

Here is the FTL Table for the game week

Congrats to Muhammad and Anton on a terrific game week.  It ended up a pretty close battle between the two of them.  Muhammad finished top of the Global League with his tally, while Anton wins the game week prize for level 2 members.  Christie, Michael and Greg make up the top 5.

Lets take a look at the head to head between the top 2 teams.

Fedex Superstars had an almost perfect Toronto line-up with both finalists Pegula and Anisimova and a semi finalist in Emma Navarro. Having Pegula as a KP also gave Muhammad some valuable extra points which ultimately made the difference.

A.P.G. also had Pegula and Montreal runner up Rublev as a dark horse.  Anton also made an excellent adventurous pick with Diana Shnaider who is having quite the year.

Monthly standings for July

 

Here is the breakdown for the July monthly standings.

Congrats to Augusto (Abdi Pasha) who topped the leader board  largely thanks to an excellent 1st place finish in the Olympics Game Week.

Augusto is a level 2 member so will receive the monthly prize for that month. 

Congrats also to Vladimir, Marc, Muhammad and Derek who all had an excellent month.

Here is the final level 2 leaderboard for the month:

 

CINCINNATI DRAWS AND DARK HORSE BREAKDOWN

I have attached the FTL Version of both the Mens and Womens Cincinnati Main Draw, and the Dark Horse Breakdown for each event. 

 

Please note that both the Mens and Womens Qualifiers will not be finalized before the start of the Main Draw on Monday.

 

If you want a copy, click on the link, CINCINNATI DRAWS.  Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want

Good Luck :)