OVERALL STANDINGS - AFTER MONTECARLO

After the final results MonteCarlo were concluded, we find ourselves with a new Overall Leader - Taylor (Stripes VII).  

In the end your week was decided by 2 major factors - did you have the gutts to trade in Stefanos Tsitsipas and after Carlos Alcaraz withdrew, who was your Emergency Replacement?!?!  Incredibly enough, 6 of our top 10 managers had Stefanos in their lineup.

After amassing 439.4 points in MonteCarlo, Taylor has accumulated 4556.76 points this season.  Thanks to his 13th place finish this week, he moved up 2 places and now sits with a 24.9 point lead.  Taylor had both finalists, and had Sinner make the Semi's.  Rublev was his only player that lost their first match this week.  Sadly, Taylor made Alcaraz his Captain, but Musetti won 2 matches and was an incredibly valuable replacement

Thanks to a 28th place finish this week, Mohaib (Dr. peRFect) continues to sit in 2nd.  He lost 46 points to our new leader, but I'm sure he'll tell you that he gained nearly a 120 points on our previous leader lol.  Mohaib had a rather auspicious start to the week as both his Captain (Alcaraz) and DH selections (Lehecka) withdrew.  To somehow make matters worse, one of this TP's (Djere) retired in the midst of his first round match!!  Sadly, Mohaib didn't anyone available to come in as an Emergency Replacement so he was stuck with 2 zero's and an injury!  Hard to believe, but thanks to a couple of bigtime swings with his trades, he ended up with Tsitsipas winning the event, and Sinner and Djoker reaching the Semi's.  This could be the type of week that Mohaib looks back on fondly and realizes that this is how he won the whole damn thing - If Stef n Djoker lose early, things get real ugly in a hurry for him!   

Thanks to a 133rd place finish, Andrea R (Sinner Circle 24) dropped 2 places and sits in 3rd.  He lost 162 points to our new leader and now sits 32.3 points behind.  Andrea had one of the best weeks in the history of the FTL the week before n sadly, its nearly impossible to follow it up positively the week after!  Sadly before Round 1 was completed, he was down 4 players!!!  He lost 2 KP's - 1 by withdrawal (Alcaraz), a TP and his DH as Rublev, Berrettini and Jarry all lost without winning a set.  He didn't have an Emergency Replacement for the week, so it put him in rather dire straights right from the get go.  Ruud and Sinner saved him from what could have been an absolute massacre!

Thanks to a 23rd place finish, Elin (Grylla's goldens) moved up 2 places and sits in 4th.  She lost 33rd points to our leader, but gained 130 points to our previous leader, so she's now only down by 70 points.   She had both finalists and Sinner make the Semi's.  Sadly she had Jarry lose in R1 and had Alcaraz as her Captain with no replacement available to take his place. 

Thanks to a 54th place finish, Olya (Russian Warship GO FUCK YOURSELF!) dropped 1 place and sits in 5th.  She dropped 86 points to our new leader, but again picked up nearly 80 points on our previous leader and is now only down by 86.9 points.  Similar to Mohaib, her week got off to a rather auspicious start as she had her KP (Alcaraz) withdraw, a TP (Djere) retire mid first round match, and didn't have a replacement eligible to replace either of them.  Sadly, her Dark Horse (Berrettini) didn't make her feel any better, as he was a virtual noshow in his R1 match. She ended up with 3 of the 4 SemiFinalists, sadly the only one she didn't have, won the event lol.  Safe to say, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

 

MONTECARLO RESULTS

 A massive congratulations goes out to our winner of MonteCarlo - Stefanos Tsitsipas. 

The discussion surrounding Tsitsipas has been rather tricky over the past couple of years - his talent is hard to miss, but its also impossible to miss his shortcomings.  Ever since he lost the French Open final (In May of 2021) from 2 sets to love up against Novak Djokovic, Stef has struggled to close the door in the final of top tier events - He's made the final of 6 such events (above a 250) and had only won once - YES that's in nearly 3 years!!!  

 

To make matters worse, Stef had been having an absolute horror story of a season, as his best result of the season was a SF in a small 250 level event in Los Cabos.  His level was sooo low (every time you turned around, he shanked a ball from the backhand wing) that there was legit questions as to if he was going to fall outside the top 20.  All of this being said, MonteCarlo is Stef's fave Masters1000 level event on tour as not only does he live there in the offseason, but he's also won it twice.  Needless to say, it put many a prognosticator in a quandry with what to expect from him for the week.   Stef put all those doubters in their place quickly as he quickly dispatched 2 clay court specialists - Djere and Etcheverry.  He then beat Zverev in an incredibly tricky match 7-5,7-6 to reach the Quarters, and easily beat Khachanov to reach the Semi's.  Sadly his victory over Sinner in the Semi's won't be remembered by most for his triumph but instead a horrific linecall (on a double fault) that would have put Sinner up 2 breaks in the 3rd, and an injury to Jannik when he was leading 4-2.  Facts are facts though, Stef became only the 2nd player to beat Jannik this season.  In the final against Casper, Stef won in rather routine fashion 6-1,6-4.  The match seemed closer than the score indicated, but Stef won every big point, as Casper wasn't able to convert a single break chance.  Now the question for Stef going forward is can he continue this incredible level that he found this week in MonteCarlo or is it simply a blip on the radar screen that we won't see again until next year in MonteCarlo!?!?

I'd like to also give a huge kuddos to Casper Ruud.  Yes, he played a rather poor match in the final against Stef, as he went 0 for 8 on break chances, but he did something in the SemiFinal that he's never done before! - beat a top 3 player.  He came into the match against Novak Djokovic having never won a single set against a top 3 player - 0 for 25!!!  Safe to say that his victory over Novak will probably do him more good confidence wise than his run to the final this week!

Outside of the 2 finalists, there are 4 major questions that came out of this week.  

1. Novak didn't look like he was in proper condition in order to play a Bo3 with Casper Ruud.  Could this be an issue moving forward on the dirt this year?!?!?

2. Andrey Rublev - is he ever going to look like a top 5 player again?!?!?  Since his default in Dubai, he's looked like a shell of himself 

3.  Just how serious is the knee injury to Jannik?  Could this create havoc with the rest of his clay court season?!?!

4. How serious is Alcaraz's injury to his right forearm?!?!  He's already been forced to withdraw from both MonteCarlo and Barcelona, sooo could it be soo severe that he misses the French Open?  How will it look if he tries to play with it in Madrid?

In terms of FTL, the managers success was decided by 2 things - Did you have the gutts to trade in Stefanos Tsitsipas on his fave event (everyone in the top 15 had him), and who was your Emergency Replacement to cover Carlos Alcaraz's late withdrawal?!

I'd like to offer a huge congrats to our MonteCarlo GameWeek Winner - The Commissioner (Value Picks 💰📈).    His team showed the importance of building salary value throughout the early stage of season, as he was able to have Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and still be able to have a competitive roster behind it!!  As a result, he ended up with all 4 finalists.  The Commissioner accumulated an incredible 533.57 points this week - not bad considering there was only 1 event going on this week!  Its strange to say this, but he was able to win the week while having 2 players lose in R1 (Koepfer and his DH - Jarry)

Goran (Bridgeburners), Kevin G (SloanePlease), Derek G (DG - Djokovic the GOAT), and Niels (Russian Roulette) round out our top 5.  Everyone that finished inside the top 3 had all 4 finalists this week!

 

 

 

March Monthly Standings

 Here are the monthly standings for March.

It was certainly a sunshine double for these 6 teams who all put in a couple of excellent performance across the two events to finish top of the monthly standings for March.

Jeremy Parish was top of the standings in Indian Wells and Tricia was top of the standings in Miami and there was less than a point between them when the monthly standings were totted up with Jeremy just pipping Tricia to the top of the leaderboard. Tricia can take consolation from the fact that as a level 2 participant she will secure the monthly prize.

It was a great month for the Parish household with Olga securing 4th place in the monthly standings. Congrarts also to Voltan, Wayne and Rick who secured 3rd, 5th and 6th respectively.

Game Week 9 results

 

So we are now quarter of the way through the FTL season.  By now most of us have built up a decent budget and put together strong squads and the chase is very much on.  But whether you are flying high in the top 10 or languishing in 87th (..ahem 😞), there is still plenty of time and plenty of points available to reverse your fortunes.

And this week was indicative of just that.  We had 3 ATP 250 events, one WTA 500 event and one WTA 250 event being played across 4 different continents which meant plenty of variety in the teams and the opportunity to make up some serious ground if you got your team selection right.  Its fair to say Andrea Russo pretty much nailed it!

Danielle Collins seems to be intent on making  her final career on tour her best one!  After her amazing title in Miami last week, most of us were debating whether she would even play in Charleston never mind win the thing.  But Danielle is striking while the iron is HOT at the moment and she romped her way through a strong field dropping just one set (to Ons) in the process.

Camilla Osorio rode the wave of home advantage to recapture the Bogota title which she first won as a 19 year old in 2021.  In the interim years its been Tatjana Maria's domain but Camilla managed to see of the German in the Quarter Final and put an impressive performance to see off no 1 seed Bouzkova in the final as she was roared on by a passionate Colombian crowd.

Hubi Hurkacz is not someone I would normally associate with clay court prowess but he showed this week in Estoril that if you have a big serve and a decent game you can triumph on any surface. This was Hubi's 8th career title but his first on the clay.  Favourite for the title Casper Ruud was well beaten by Pedro Martinez in the semi final but the Spaniard was no match for Hurkacz.

Matteo Berrettini defeated another Spaniard, Roberto Carballes Baena in the Marrakech final. I'll be honest, i never really associate Berrettini with clay either. I've no idea where that idea came from because this was Matteo's 7th clay final and 4th clay title. 😂   After all the injury problems he has suffered in recent years its great to see him winning trophies again, coming through some tough battles in the process.  Will be very interesting to see what Matteo can do on clay and grass in the coming months.

Ben Shelton won his 2nd career title in Houston. It was an all American final with Shelton defeating good friend Frances Tiafoe in a hard fought three setter. Its a shame we won't see these two in the Monte Carlo draw this week.  Will be very interesting to see how they manage on the European clay.

Here is the final Game Week table.  Andrea Russo (Sinner Circle 24) almost put in the perfect week with their terrific total of 577.228 points putting him 90 points ahead of the chasing pack.

Here is Andrea's winning team...

Going into the Semi Finals on Thursday, Andrea had all 8 players still in play (while some of us were down to 1 or 2).  I have to admit that by this stage I was following Andrea's team more closely than my own and willing every one of his players to get through to the final!  😀

Ultimately it wasn't the prefect week but it came pretty darn close.  Andrea had 3 winners in Hurkacz, Collins and Berrettini and two runners up in Bouzkova and Kasatkina while Ruudm Etcheverry and Darderi were losing semi finalists.

Congratulations Andrea on a great week.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the other great performers this week even if their scores were overshadowed by the eventually winner.   DreamTeam (Tony) finished in 2nd place on 486 points. Roll Over Kasatkina (David Lin) were third on 479 points and Swing Kings (Kevin) and Russian Warship go Fk yourself (Olya) took 4th and 5th spots.

So what does this mean for the overall table.

Well here it is!!

Sinner Circle 24 (Andrea) moved up an incredible 11 places from 12th placed to 1st place after that outstanding Game Week  performance and the other high scorers all made strong moves to. Olya moved up 6 places from 10th to 4th.  Kevin R moved up an impressive 17 places to 12th and Tony moved up 20 places to 14th

Dr. peRFect hangs on to 2nd spot with Stripes VII dropping from the top spot into third,

Good luck in Monte Carlo folks - who is going to be the big movers this week?

(and remember - the cup returns in Game Week 11)

MONTECARLO - MAIN DRAWS AND DARK HORSE BREAKDOWN

 

I have attached the FTL Version of the MonteCarlo Main Draw, and the Dark Horse Breakdown.  If you want a copy, click on the link, MONTECARLO DRAWS.  Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want

Good Luck :)

OVERALL STANDINGS - AS OF MIAMI

Not a tonne of movement at the top of the Overall Leaderboard this week, as the top 2 managers (Taylor and Mohaib) continue to sit firmly in their positions!  Can this result continue?  It will be real interesting to see the results of the next few weeks, as its never easy transitioning to a different surface! 

The Miami GameWeek was decided by answering the simple question, did you have DanYell Collins in your lineup, and the Overall Leaderboard highlighted this fact, as only 1 of the top 5 managers played her!

 

Taylor (Stripes VII)  has accumulated 3866.28 points and continues to sit in first.  He finished 37th this week Miami as he added 610.95 points onto his total.  He had a winner (Sinner -KP) and a finalist (Rybakina - KP) and 2 other players reach the semi's (Zverev and Medvedev both as TP).  Sadly he ended up with a player losing his first match of the week as Tsitsipas lost to Shapovalov.  I'll be honest, it was one of the ugliest performances by anyone all week.

 

Mohab (Dr. peRFect) continues to sit in 2nd.  Thanks to a 59th place finish, he lost 32 points to our overall leader and now sits 58.58 points behind. He had a winner (Sinner - KP) and a finalist (Rybakina -TP), and a Semi Finalist (Medvedev).  Sadly, he ended up with a player losing his first match of the week as Rublev lost to Machac.  Have to say, I dont think that Rublev is in any hurry to face another young up and coming Czech any time soon lol

 

Tricia (Prepare For CzechMate) moved up 14 spots and sits in 3rd thanks to a GameWeek Victory in Miami.  She gained 163 points on our overall leader and now sits only 103.8 behind.  She had both winners (Sinner-C, Collins - TP) and a finalist (Dimtrov -TP), and 2 other players reach the Semi's (Medvedev and Zverev).  Tricia is a real interesting addition to our top 5 as she's had some incredible results over the past few years.  She's never won tho, could this be the year?

 

Wayne (Court and Spark)  continues to sit in 4th.  Thanks to a 46th place finish, he lost 10 poitns to our leader and now sits 105 points behind.  He had a winner (Sinner -KP), a finalist (Rybkina - TP) and a semi finalist (Medvedev - kp).  Sadly he had 2 players lose their first match of the week - Samsonova toYulia Putintseva and his ATP Dark Horse (Jiri Lehecka) lose to Alexei Popryin.

 

Mateusz (<><v3.)  dropped 2 spots and now sits in 5th.  Thanks to a 92nd place finish, he lost 67 points to our leader and now sits 144 points behind.  He had a winner (Sinner -C), a finalist (Rybakina -KP) and a semifinalist (Medvedev -KP).  These type of top results would normally be enough to have you do incredibly well, but he had 4 players lose their first match of the week - YES - 4!!!  Rublev, Fritz, Potapova and his ATP Dark Horse (Lehecka).  If this wasn't painful enough, he had the eventual winner, DanYell Collins sitting pretty, screaming at him as an Emergency Replacement selection!

 

 

 

MIAMI - RESULTS

Huge congrats to both of our winners - Jannik Sinner and DanYell Collins. One things for certain, about the only thing that these two have in common is that they won this week lol - well minus the fact that both of them lost a total of 1 set all week.

Jannik Sinner entered the week as a sizeable fave to win the Miami Masters for the first time in his career.  Alcaraz may have beaten him the week before in Indian Wells, but Sinner had made the final in Miami in 2 of the past 3 years, and the court in Miami suits his game better than Carlos.  Jannik struggled in his 2nd match of the week against Tallon Griekspoor as he lost his first and only set of the week, but from that point forward, the tennis that he displayed was scary scary good, as he lost a total of 20 games in the final 4 matches of the event.  In both the SemiFinals and Finals, he made Medvedev and Dimitrov look like they didn't belong on the same court as him.  Sinner's played some absolutely incredible tennis since the US Open - hard to believe but he has more event wins (5) than losses (3) in that timeframe.  The only players that have a victory over him are Djokovic, Alcaraz and Shelton.  Now that the tour moves to the Clay Courts, it will be interesting to see if Jannik can continue to play anywhere near this type of level! 

Now for the real story of Miami - DanYell Collins.  For those that are unaware, DanYell announced earlier this year that she was planning on retiring at the end of the season, and after being continually pressed on this fact, she doubled down this week in Miami by saying that because she had Rheumatoid Arthritis that if she wanted to start a family, she'd have to do it sooner than later, as it would make getting pregnant far more difficult.  DanYell entered the event unseeded, but everyone on tour is fully aware of her incredible talent - so no one would ever look past her.  Her level this season has been incredibly high, but the draw gods haven't been in her favour as she's had to face both Iga Swiatek (twice) and Elena Rybakina in R2 in 3 of her past 5 events!  But as we all know, every once in a while, the draw gods help you out, and in Miami everything turned around.  She was placed in a Quarter Final section with both Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur.  Ons has looked injured all season, and Coco has really been struggling.  Sure enough both lost early and her path to the Semi's opened up and both top seeds in the other Quarter Final - Swiatek and Pegula- lost early as well.  DanYell lost the first set of her week against Bernarda Pera, but from that point forward she made the finals and never lost more than 3 games in single set as she easily dispatched Anasatasia Potapova, Elina Avanesyan, Sorana Cirstea, Caroline Garcia and Ekaterina Alexandrova.  Sadly, in the final she had to face Elena Rybakina, who had beaten her the last 3 times they had faced off.  DanYell had 3 things going for her entering the final, 1- the home crowd, 2 - her level was at an all-time high and 3 - Rybakina had played a tonne of tennis to reach the final.   Its hard to suggest that the level in the final was the highest that you'll ever see, but there was some incredible quality from both players in patches.  Sadly, it was pretty obvious that Rybakina was simply out of gas, and was making more errors than you would typically see.  DanYell took full advantage, and won the match 7-5, 6-3!  With this weeks result, I can tell you for certain that she's not the only player thats celebrating her victory lol - This result means that she's now ranked 22nd, which will help ensure that the top players will not have to face her in R1 or 2 of a huge event!

I'd like to offer another huge kuddos to Grigor Dimitrov.  He may not have won the event in Miami, hell lets be honest, he wasn't competitive against Jannik in the final, but the level he displayed to make the final deserves some props!!  He beat 3 top 10 players (Hubert Hurkacz, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev) in back to back to back matches!!!  His level against Carlos was soo high, that Carlos was basically dumbfounded and at a loss for words.  His victory over Zverev might have been even more shocking as it had been nearly a decade since the last time he beat him (ya Zverev was like 16 lol).  Meanwhile, around the same time last year, Grigor was ranked outside the top 30, and after this result, he's now ranked inside the top 10.  His level over the past 5 months would suggest that he's a top 10 player, so its nice to see that his ranking also displays his current level!

 

In terms of FTL, the results of the Miami GameWeek was basically determined by 1 simple question.  Did you have DanYell Collins.  Everyone that finished inside the top 3 had her!

Tricia (Prepare for CzechMate) amassed a ridiculous 774 points this week and she had both winners (Sinner as her Captain), a Finalist (Dimitrov) and had both Medvedev and Zverev make the semi's!!  Tricia has long been known in FTL as forever a bridesmaid but never a bride (she's finished 2nd 3 times in the overall), so I'm sure that her victory this week will brighten her spirits and maybe it will help push her to her first overall victory! (long way to go)

Robby (Wise Aces) finished 2nd, just 18 points behind.  He was one of the 2 managers (Edd) that had all 4 finalists this week.  If Rybakina wins the final against DanYell, he might have had enough points to finish ahead of Tricia this week.  Sadly for Robby, a first match loss by his ATP Dark Horse (Jiri Lehecka) is probably what did him in.  

Edd (The Bestest),  myself (♥ SEE-MO-NA! SEE-MO-NA! SEE-MO-NA!!!♥) and Maire (🎾☘️ For the Love of Leadóg 🎾) round out our top 5.  Sadly no one outside of Robby was within 50 points of our winner!