Real Tennis Fantasy League 2024-25 round-up
Wrapping up 12 months of action from the RTFL. Who has secured the title?
The Real Tennis Fantasy League 2024-25 season wrapped up in late July with the Champions Trophy at the Royal Tennis Court. Over the course of the 2024-25 season, over 75 players from around the world have competed to win points by picking squads for all the major real tennis events at the elite level. Let's quickly recap the rules and celebrate the winners of this year's Real Tennis Fantasy League (RTFL).
The concept is simple: pick a squad of three players for each event in the RTFL calendar; earn points based on their performance and get bonuses for big wins, solo picks and playing your ‘Tournament Boost’. But here's the rub: each player comes at a price, you have a fixed budget for the season, and you can use your Tournament Boost only once. So you need to pick your players wisely, study the form book and work out where the best value comes from, to be successful.
The turning point of this year’s League was the US Open. Camden Riviere’s performance over more than a decade had been unstoppable, and his record at the US Open incredible. It's not surprising then that plenty of players saved up some budget to pick Riviere for the win. Step forward a few players who took a different route, picking John Lumley three times and playing their Tournament Boost at the same time. That strategy paid off massively, propelling players like “MerolaBlades” and “TopDoy” to the top of the League.
A few players left it late in the season to play their tournament boost; again choosing a similar strategy to triple-pick John Lumley and apply their tournament boost on the Champions Trophy. That created some big moves around the League table right at the end of the season.
On to our winners. Congratulations to Nino Merola (username “TopDoy”) for winning the 2024-25 Real Tennis Fantasy League! Nino jumped into the lead after the Australian Open with a triple pick on Camden with a tournament boost, and managed to stave off the opposition over the second half of the season. Rob Shenkman (username “MerolaBlades”) finished as runner-up just five points behind Nino. Sammy Legg (“Sam L”) rounds off the podium having recovered from a mid-season dip in form.
The full top 10 looks like this:
TopDoy (Nino Merola), 458 points
MerolaBlades (Rob Shenkman), 453 points
Sam L (Sammy Legg), 447 points
Oskar (Oskar Knotsche), 404 points
JGRT (James Gigg), 395 points
TheFansFaheyvourite (Lewis Williams), 385 points
Dead Ons (Ben Taylor-Matthews), 379 points
Tambour Alert (Leon Smart), 377 points
Watkins Wonders (John Watkins), 374 points
Rodders (Louis Gordon) & giles (Giles Doy), 373 points
What happens next? Attention switches to the 2025-26 season, comprising a slightly different set of tournaments and a couple of rule changes. But the main principle remains the same. Registration for the 2025-26 season opens in August and you'll hear all about it through rtfantasyleague.com and here on Real Tennis News. You can also join us on WhatsApp here.