Fantasy Tennis League: Captain’s Corner Week 35

We’ve got three tournaments this week. On the men’s side there are two 500s in Basel and Vienna, and in the WTA we’ve got the Finals in Singapore. There is little downside to playing as many women as you can as each player gets a minimum of three matches. Let’s take a look at the best five captain options.

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Roger Federer

Federer is an absolute lock this week. As I mentioned in my Game Week 35 recommendations, the Swiss has won the Swiss Indoors seven times, including twice in the last three years, and is 25-2 since July. With a tired del Potro his likely semifinal opponent he will cruise to the final to face Goffin or Cilic — opponents he has a combined 12-1 record against.

Elina Svitolina

Probably the sensible choice. Svitolina is a top-five Fantasy Tennis scorer this year on the back of three Premier 5 titles. She hasn’t dipped below $10m since Game Week two when she dropped 81 Fantasy Tennis points. Since then she has had scores of 84.4, 105.9 and 119.7 with multiple 50 and 60 weeks as well. Her record against the WTA Finals field this year is 8-1.

Venus Williams

Not for the faint of heart. I like Venus because her competition is so young, so unproven, so unknown, and she is desperate for one last title. There is also some historical merit in picking her: she has won 88% of her 88 indoor hard court matches, she is 11-5 in WTA Finals, has won a title in Singapore before, has been successful in the major tournaments this year and has a career 67% win percentage against top ten players. The reasons why she may bomb: the court is slow and her 2017 record against the field is 1-3 (1-0 vs Penko, 0-2 vs Garbo, 0-1 Svitolina).

Alexander Zverev

Zverev doesn’t have a record in Vienna and his form has dipped significantly since his title in Montreal. The reason I’d pick him, however, is because he’s super-duper talented and is due for a big week. With five titles on the year he has shown the ability to big, and with a weak draw in which Dominic Thiem is his main competitor, I can see the Erst Bank Open as a tournament Zverev bounces back in. If you’re looking for a point of difference captain/can’t afford Roger/don’t trust the crop of women then take a flyer.

Caroline Garcia

Garcia rounds out the top five because of how freaking good she is playing. Since September she is 15-3 with the Wuhan-Beijing double and wins over Svitolina, Kvitova, a red-hot Halep and a red-hot Barty. My only trepidation is her record on indoor hard courts (53% – this worst of anyone in the field by a full ten percentage points).