It’s time for the ATP Fantasy Tennis Season so check out our Fantasy Tennis Guide. You’ll find Fast Facts, Strategies, and Statistics to help you play the game.
Sign up and join our subleague! It’s called tennisdiary.com. We send weekly email updates to all subleague members before the submission deadline.
This week’s submission deadline is Monday morning, August 11, 4am (EST) in the U.S./10am (CET) in Europe.
This week we have only one tournament and it’s in Washington. It’s a 32 player draw and we need eight players for our fantasy team so let’s pick the quarterfinalists. The draw is almost identical to last week’s tournament in Los Angeles – twenty players from Los Angeles are entered into Washington – so we’ll have some of the same decisions to make.
Washington draw (hard court, first prize: $80,650)
Andy Roddick is the number one seed again and the only person who might give him trouble in his section is Eduardo Schwank. Roddick beat him in straight sets at Wimbledon and it wasn’t easy, but Schwank hasn’t played a hard court main draw match this year and, in any case, he’s not eligible for our fantasy team because his ranking was below 100 at the beginning of the fantasy tennis season.
Back to the same conversation we had last week: should you use Roddick in this event or save him? I have two Roddick picks left and I’m going to save one for the US Open because a quarterfinal there pays twice as much as the first prize in Washington. Roddick has fallen down the rankings a bit so he’s planning to play four tournaments in the fall and those tournaments pay at least twice as much as Washington. But I’m getting a bit concerned about his injuries this year and except for Paris and Madrid – where he hasn’t done well in the past few years – he’d have to reach the finals to match Washington’s prize money. He’s also won this tournament two out of the last three years so I’m taking him this week.
We have only one choice in the next section because Marc Giquel is the only player eligible for fantasy tennis.
The next section has Feliciano Lopez, Taylor Dent, and two qualifiers, so we have to pick Lopez because he’s the only player eligible for fantasy tennis. Dent fell out of the rankings because he’s been off the tour for a few years with a back injury. Lopez lost to Denis Gremelmayr in his first match in Los Angeles but at least Gremelmayr made it to the semifinals.
Marat Safin has a 2-0 record over Fabio Fognini and a 1-0 record over Mischa Zverev who share the next section with him. Safin also reached the quarterfinals this week. Igor Kunitsyn is not eligible for fantasy tennis so Safin it is.
Mardy Fish reached the semifinals in Los Angeles and he beat Alejandro Falla and Florent Serra in straight sets along the way, so I’m picking Fish again.
Nicolas Mahut and Tommy Haas are the only eligible players in the next section. Mahut is 2-0 over Haas with one victory on indoor hard court and the other on outdoor hard court in Indianapolis. And Haas lost to Donald Young this week, which was a surprise, so I’m going with Mahut.
Sorry to repeat myself but Marcel Granollers and Donald Young are the only eligible players in the next section. Granollers has yet to win a hard court match in a main draw event and Young beat Haas this week, so I’m going with Young.
[Correction: John Isner is in this section as fantasy player gzd astutely pointed out, and Isner reached the final last year. He can probably beat Young so I’m picking Isner instead.]
Juan Martin Del Potro is the second seed and he just dismissed Mardy Fish in the semifinals in Los Angeles, 6-2, 6-1. That’s Del Potro’s 13th straight win and tomorrow will be his third straight final. He had a leg injury and skipped Toronto and Cincinnati so he shouldn’t be tired.
Picks
Here are my picks this week: Roddick, Gicquel, Lopez, Safin, Fish, Mahut, Isner, Del Potro.
Happy fantasies!