Game Week 17 wasn't quite as chaotic as the previous game week but we still saw plenty of surprises (particularly in the German events) which ultimately scuppered the hopes of many FTL teams.
In Halle there were early exits for Tsitsipas, Medvedev and Sinner (due to retirement) which must cast some doubt on their Wimbledon credentials.
In Berlin, there were early exits for last years Wimbledon Champ Elena Rybakina (2nd Round to Vekic) and Ons Jabeur (1st Round to Niemeier) as well as highly favoured Aryna Sabalenka (2nd Round to Kudermetova)
However the game week also witnessed some established grass court stars and one all court superstar showing their credentials on the green stuff.
Carlos Alcaraz is a quick learner and after a tricky opener against Rinderknech at Queens, he just got better and better on the surface despatching some serious grass court talent in the process of winning the title (Dimitrov, Korda and De Minaur).
Sascha Bublik is another one of those players where you never know what you will get and it was not long ago that he was guilty of an expletive ridden rant in Russian where he pretty much questioned why he was even bothering to train. This week he was immaculate especially against Zverev in the semi final and against Rublev in the final. With that serve he can be a serious threat at Wimbledon but don't forget the Halle curse. Unless your name is Fedeer, the winner invariably loses in the 1st Round at SW19!
In Berlin, Czech veteran and queen of grass Petra Kvitova pulled off another tournament win in what is turning out to be a pretty good year for her having already won a trophy in Miami. She took out Garcia and Alexandrova before seeing off a spirited challenge from Vekic in the final.
And finally Jelena Ostapenko took the title in Birmingham against Barbora Krejcikova. Jelena had to battle through several 3 set epics this week including a tough win over a rejuvenated Venus Williams and a quite remarkable comeback from a set and 0-4 down against Magdalena Frech.
And so to the FTL contest for this gameweek.
Here is the final leaderboard
The battle for game week bragging rights was ultimately contested by 2 teams from our free to enter Global League.
And it was Jelena Ostapenko that not only won the title in Birmingham but also just managed to pip Antonela by 3 points to clinch the FTL game week with a total of 485.85 points.
You may recall that Jelena assisted us with the pre season FTL promotional campaign and was also persuaded to enter a team with the proviso that she be allowed to make herself Captain whenever she was playing. That strategy paid off handsomely this week.
Here is Jelena's winning team. She had two game week winners (herself and Alcaraz) and two runners up in Rublev and Krejcikova.
When interviewed about her win, Jelena said "I won because my grass court knowledge is better than everyone else and in fact I would have won by more if my mum had reminded me that Maria and Donna were playing in Berlin"
Massive kudos to Antonela Vukojevic on a terrific game week. Here is Antonela's side. She actually only had 7 active players and could have won the game week if Donna Vekic had even just taken the 2nd set against Petra- a set where she was a break up but ultimately lost in a high quality tie break.
But of course the game week prize always goes to a level 2 participant and this week that was the legend that is Vlad Zuperman with his team Rafa. Vlad finished the game week with 467 points. He had Queens winner Carlos Alcaraz as his Captain and Halle runner-Up Rublev as a KP and also got decent points from Zverev, Sakkari and Rune.
Shout outs to Taylor Andrew, Jane Bruce and Cainim Truax who finished in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Taylor's is a tale of what might have been as he unfortunately left the Halle champ on the bench. :( We've all been there!
