Day 3 is done and dusted and with that the 1st round is done and dusted. It wouldn’t be a grand slam nowadays if there weren’t surprises and everyday so far has brought more and more upsets and surprises. Day 3 was full of everything. First things first some admin needs to be communicated. Kalinskaya pulled out at the very last minute and so she is replaced by the next ranked lady which is Haddad Maia. So if you had Kalinskaya, you now have Haddad Maia. There was 1 team who had both Kalinskaya and Haddad Maia so you received the next ranked player being Kostyuk.

Today I will start with the men. Kecmanovic came through a tough 5 set match against fellow Serb, Lajovic to book his spot in the 2nd round. 13th seed, Rune just about survived against Zhang. This was a big match with 10 people having picked Rune and just 1 team had Zhang. So this could’ve been a huge win for the fantasy league standings however Rune came through 6-4 in the final set. The possible match of the day was between 2 generations of Frenchman. Monfils was up against 30th Mpetshi Perricard. The youngster came in the favourite however it was the experience of Monfils who came through the battle 7-6(7); 6-3; 6-7(6); 6-7(5); 6-4. 2 teams had Monfils while 6 had Mpetshi Perricard. Those 2 teams won this time round. Well Played Monfils! Medvedev the 5th seed and last years finalist just about survived on day 3 against Samrej. Medvedev coming back from 2 sets to 1 down and dropped just 3 games in the final 2 sets to book his spot in the next round. Etcheverry knocked out 32nd seed, Cobolli in 4 sets. This would’ve made 4 teams very happy as he scored them 9 points as Cobolli was a seed. Moutet was another player who knocked out a seed, this time it was 25th seed, Popyrin who fell in 4 sets. The big upset of the day was 9th seed, Rublev picked by 9 teams as their sub who was knocked out in straight sets to the next gen finals winner and 18 year old Brazilian, Fonseca. Comfortable wins on day 3 for Khachanov, Berrettini, Fritz, Cerundolo, Hurkacz, Shelton, Musetti, Sonego, Shapovalov and De Minaur.

Onto the ladies draw…and Haddad Maia the managed to come back from a set down to book her spot in the 2nd round. Raducanu was the first to produce an upset on day 2 as she knocked out 26th seed, Alexandrova in 2 tiebreaks. 8th seed, Navarro came through an extremely tough match against fellow American, Stearns. 6-7(5); 7-6(5); 7-5. This was a relief for 20 teams who have all picked her as their sub. 24th seed, Putintseva survived a 3 set encounter as well on day 3. Osorio beat 31st seed, Sakkari in 3 sets. The Greek still on a 1st round losing streak. 22nd seed, Boulter, came through a tough match against Marino 6-4; 3-6; 7-5. Comfortable wins for Kasatkina, Anisimova, Yastremska, Rybakina, Keys, Paolini, Jabeur and Kudermetova.

Onto the fantasy leaderboard and we have yet another leader at the end of round 1. ‘(B)racquet Challenge has moved to the top just 1 point ahead of ‘Tipsy 1’. 1 point behind them in 3rd sits ‘Lucky 13’. ‘Left Out’ sits in 4th and them comes a joint 5th place between ‘Hawks Hackers’ and ‘PhenomeNOnadal’.
Still a huge tie for the spot prize in 41st spot with 5 teams in the joint 40th spot. ‘Calf Cramps’ holds 69th spot and the 2nd prize position while last spot is occupied by ‘Manchester United’ who have scored a lowly 8 points in the 1st round.

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a tennis fantasy league organiser.http://Eishonline.co.za/jftl