Game Week 28 Roundup

 

Game Week 28 Champions

WTA 1000 Beijing -   Amanda Anisimova

ATP 500 Beijing - Jannik Sinner

ATP 500 Tokyo  - Carlos Alcaraz

2025 just keeps getting better and better for Amanda Anisimova.  It began so well when she won the WTA 1000 title in Qatar in February.  She followed that up by reaching slam finals at both Wimbledon and the US Open (ensuring her place at the year end finals) and she followed that all up by taking another 1000 title in Beijing.  

There is no doubt she is the form player on tour right now and she'll go into the year end finals as one of the favourites. Most of us will know the personal struggles Amanda had to deal with and the fact  that she took a prolonged break from the game, so its great to see that she is now back not only competing but fulfilling the potential that the tennis world knew she had.

Amanda didn't have the easiest route either.   She came from a set down to beat Muchova in Round 4 and again from a set down to beat Paolini in the Quarter Finals.   It was surprisingly straightforward in the semi final against Coco Gauff who is still a work in progress at the moment as she attempts to bring technical changes to her game.

Beijing had some other good stories too.  Eva Lys defeated Elena Rybakina and McCartney Kessler and Sonay Kartal defeated Mirra Andreeva as they secured places in the Quarter Finals. But the other standout player of the week was Linda Noskova (still remarkably only 20)  who managed to edge Jess Pegula in a titanic semi final battle.

Amanda dominated the opening set against Noskova - a bagel no less but Noskova stormed back in the 2nd set taking it 6-2.  It was Amanda who was to prevail though leaving Noskova having to wait a little longer for her first title at this level but it feels like it won't be long .....until the Noskova era begins!

As for the guys - well those two are just getting annoying now.  Sinner and Alcaraz seems to be dividing up the spoils between them at the moment.  I mean you would think with two 500 events going on they could at least pick the same one to play in and give the other guys a chance but nope, they weren't having any of that - both wanted their 500 points.

There was a little bit of a fright for Carlos in his opening match against Baez in Tokyo when he turned his foot awkwardly and it did genuinely appear he would not be able to continue.  But despite the advice of his team, Carlos was not having it - got his foot taped up and played and won the match...and the rest is history.  Ruud pushed him to three sets in the semi final but the final itself was a straight forward 6-4, 6-4 win over Fritz gaining revenge for the Laver Cup loss.

It wasn't entirely straightforward to Jannik Sinner in Beijing either.  He dropped a set in his 2nd Round match against the inspired Terence Atmane who increasingly look like one to watch for next year and another set was dropped against the tenacious Alex De Minaur in the semi final.  Alex is having the best season of his career and should be a fun addition to the year end finals.

On the other side of the draw it was all about Lerner Tien who is definitely the breakout star of 2025. He has such an excellent game and a very level headed attitude to life and no doubt there is a lot more to come from him.  In Beijing he came back from behind to score victories over Cerundolo in the 1st round, Musetti in the Quarters and a cramping Medvedev in the semi finals.

The score in the final of 6-2, 6-2 looks pretty straightforward for Sinner and perhaps shows how far Tien has to go to compete at the very top level.  Nevertheless his performance was admirable and  the margin of defeat didn't really reflect how much he pushed Jannik,

Here are the final standings in the Global League for Game Week 28

Taylor and Stripes VIII were the overwhelming winners this week with a lead of 30 points over Amaze balls (Nachiket) in 2nd place.   However, as a level 2 participant, Nachiket wins the weekly prize for that contest.  Congrats to both of you on a great game week.

Lets take a look at the head to head between the two.  

Not many differences between these two teams.  Both teams could boast all three winners in the shape of Sinner, Alcaraz and Anisimova.  In fact they had 7 identical players with the only differences between TP Andreeva for Stripes VII and TP De Minaur for Amaze-Balls.  

The most significant difference between the two teams however and one which was to prove crucial

was the choice of dark horse.   Taylor's choice of Navarro outscored Maya Joint for Nachiket by 25 points. Stripes also had Anisimova as a KP which improved her points return.

Monthly Standings for September

Here is a breakdown of the monthly standings for September.

All of our top 5 had a great month with consistently good performances.

They all finished in the top 10 in Game Week 27.

Last years season champ Elin was runner up in Game Week 26 and won game 27 but just feel short in the monthly standings due to a lower finish in Game Week 28.

So the honours go to Violet and Grass Court Masters who were the most consistent team of the month finishing in the top 10 in each of the 3 game weeks and amassing 1234.667 points in the process.

Congrats Violet!!

GAMEWEEK 29 DRAWS AND DARK HORSE BREAKDOWN

GameWeek 29 is easily the most awkward week of the season, as the first ball will be struck in Shanghai, and there will be no sign of the Qualifying Draw forget the Main Draw from the Womens event in Wuhan!  I'll be honest, I'm not sure if its more awkward or frustrating.  Sadly, even tho a solution has been devised to alleviate this issue, it was determined that it won't be available until next season (there was just too many things that could go wrong if it was rolled out midseason)

 

I have attached the Draws (FTL Version) for the Mens Event in Shanghai.  I've also included The Dark Horse Breakdown for both the Mens Event and the Womens Event in Wuhan.  Please note that there could easily be a long list of withdrawals between now and when the Main Draw starts in Wuhan (but its still better than nothing)

 

Do not forget to select your Dark Horses for both the Mens and Womens event.

 

If you want a copy, click on the link, GW29 DRAWS Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want

Good Luck :)

Game Week 27 Roundup

 

Congrats to our game week 27 champions.

Iga Swiatek was back to winning ways in the Korean Open in Seoul.  As anticipated, we got a battle of the no 1 and no 2 seeds in the final and Ekaterina Alexandrova was so close to securing a rate win over Iga but just feel painfully short.  She's still in with an outside chance of reaching the WTA finals.

It was a remarkable 4th title of the year for Alexander Bublik in Hangzhou.  For a man who by all accounts was on the verge of quitting the game, this has been a year of consistent winning on tour.  Bublik defeated the surprise package of the week in Valentin Royer who had defeated Rublev, Tien and Moutet en route to the final.  It was also a good week for Wu Yibing who has had his fair share of injury woes.  He had an excellent win over Medvedev in the Quarters but didn't have much left to give in his semi final against Bublik.

And another man who has spent a lot of time on the side lines recently is Alejandro Tabilo who triumphed over Lorenzo Musetti in the Chengdu Open.  It was great to see Tabilo playing the type of tennis that had pushed him so high up the rankings last year and will give him optimism for the rest of this season and the year ahead.  A tough loss for Musetti who has now lost his last 5 ATP finals, his last success being way back in 2022.

FTL Global  Standings Game Week 27

The undisputed Game Week Champions in Game Week 27 were hana kumatata managed by Elle who finished an incredible 50 points ahead of the best of the rest.  (Me!!) 

Lets take a look at the incredible team that managed to amass a giddy total of 488 points in this game week. 

Elle dominated the Seoul event having both finalists (Swiatek and Alexandrova) and also a semi finalist in the shape of rising talent Maya Joint.   Elle also had another champ in Bublik and runner up Lorenzo Musetti.  Not a bad line-up at all. 

In the level 2 league, its a familiar face at the top of the standings.  Last years winner Elin Bondal and her team gryllas golden's took the game week.  She also finished an admirable 5th place in the game week.  

Here is Elin's winning team.  

Elin had two champs as Captain and KP (Swiatek and Bublik) and also Seoul runner up Alexandrova as a KP.  A valuable supporting role was playing by Siniakova who reached the semi finals in Seoul.

Congrats to Elin who is our game week prize winner this week.

FTL Cup returns

 

Its semi final time in the FTL Cup.  

Micahel Sommer and Eric Zoberman will lead their side into battle against DJ_2025 managed by David Josseljohn.

The other match features Sara Skinner's Bandits and Nadal's Forehand with Dragan Josifoski at the helm

Good luck to everyone involved!

GW 28 DRAWS AND DARK HORSE BREAKDOWN FOR THE WTA EVENT

 

I have attached the Draws (FTL Version) for GameWeek 28 and the Dark Horse Breakdown for the WTA 1000 event in Beijing.  The Qualifying for both the Mens event in Tokyo and the Womens event was completed earlier today and the placement of the Qualifiers and the Lucky Loser (Svitolina withdrew) was added.  Please note that the Qualifying for the Mens Event in Beijing will not be completed until well after the first ball has been struck in Tokyo later today.

 

Do not forget to select your Dark Horses for both the Womens event in Beijing. 

 

If you want a copy, click on the link, GW28 DRAWS Once you do so, click on FILE, and scroll to MAKE A COPY, and call it whatever you want

Good Luck :)

US Open results

 

Congratulations to the US Open Champions  Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka.

There was no surprise in the line up for the men's singles final at the US Open.   Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz look like they will dominate men's tennis for a long time to come.  This was the third final slam final in a row where they faced off against each other and of course Sinner won the first slam final of the year as well.

The outcome might have been a little surprising though.  Sinner has been dominant on the hard courts in recent times and having pushed Alcaraz so close on the clay and having taken his Wimbledon crowd, one might have thought that Sinner would be in a strong position to win his third slam of the year.

Alcaraz was prepared for the challenge though. His team chose to skip Toronto and instead had an intensive training block entirely focusing on how they would beat Sinner on the hard courts and the results were evident not just in the final but throughout the tournament.  

Alcaraz was a more consistent and professional version of himself at the US Open and his serve in particular was far stronger than  ever allowing him to control all if his matches and not drop needless sets in the early rounds. 

Carlos didn't drop a single set on route to the final.  Even Novak, who deserves all the credit in the world for being the best of the rest at the grand old age of 38, could not lay a finger on him in the final. In the other semi final Sinner defeated Felix Auger Aliassime in 4 sets.  It was an excellent tournament for FAA which saw him score wins over Zverev and De Minaur and will give him confidence going forward.

The final itself wasn't the classic battle we might have hoped for.  Sinner did manage to get a set but didn't really mount a serious challenge and Alcaraz comfortably took his 2nd US Open title and remarkably his 6th Grand Slam title.

Going into this years US Open, there had been 9 different winners in the 10 years since Serena Williams won her 6 US Open title.  Only Naomi Osaka had won it twice in that time and nobody had defended their title since Serena.  Aryna Sablenka was reminded of that stat and assured the assembled press conference prior to the tournament, that she was going to change that trend.

And so she did!  Its been an interesting year for Aryna.  As her no 1 ranking indicated, she had been the best player on the WTA tour this year but she didn't have a slam title to show for it having been runner up at the Australian Open and the French Open.  

Sabalenka benefited from a walkover in the quarter final with Vondrousova pulling out after a tough 3 set win over the much fancied Rybakina.  She was given a tough challenge in the semi final with Jess Pegula taking the 1st set before Aryna struck back.  Remarkably Aryna won the 3rd set while only taking 4 points from Pegula's serve - it just so happened those 4 points were all in one game and that break proved to be enough.  

On the other half of the draw, there was sweet revenge for Amanda Anisimova over Iga Swiatek after that awful Wimbledon final where she was double bagelled by the Pole. That set up a semi final against Naomi Osaka who is finally founding the form that won her four grand slams a few years ago.  It was a terrific battle with Anisimova finally coming through winning the third set 6-3 after the two had shared tie breaks.

Anisimova back in a slam final at the first opportunity after her Wimbledon loss, was determined to put on a better show and she did manage to push Aryna all  the way but it was to end in disappointment once again with Aryna battling to a 6-3, 7-6 victory and thereby confirming her place as No 1 in the WTA rankings.  

And so to FTL.  With budgets for many teams around the 200m mark, its not too surprising that so many manager can field super teams at this stage of the season.   Sinner, Alcaraz, Swiatek, Sabalenka would find themselves in every team.  And because Jess Pegula had been on such a bad run of form, she was suddenly available as a dark horse pick - nearly everyone picked her and she delivered!

So ultimately it was down to one or two differentials to separate the teams in this FTL week.

Here is the final global leaderboard table for the US Open

 

Massive congrats to Mark (Top of the Popyrins) who won the game week in an incredibly tight contest with Tricia (Prepare for Czech mate).   Perhaps even more remarkably, Mark pulled off this feat, while having one of the finalists - Amanda Anisimova on the bench.  Lets just say his winning margin would have been a lot higher had he foreseen Amanada's win over Iga and actually picked her!

Lets take a look at the head to head between the two teams.

Both teams trusted in Djokovic to deliver and he definitely did.  You can't count him out just yet!  Tricia had a strong differential in Naomi Osaka while Mark had a sold return from De Minaur and chose to trust Pegula in his starting 8 rather than relying on the reduced points she would get as a DH Pick. Instead he chose Muchova as his female DH and she paid him back handsomely.  Tricia's main weakness other than the male DH was Coco Gauff who despite a 55 point return, really had a US Open to forget.