For most people, Fantasy Tennis is a great way to enjoy the tennis season year-round. It’s free, fun, a great way to test your tennis knowledge against your mates and there’s plenty of prizes to win along the way.
But for Matej Laznik, it just paid for his vacation to Australia and tickets to the 2018 Australian Open men’s final in Melbourne.
In 2017, www.fantasytennisleague.com had 27,261 coaches competing for the top rank in the world, and it was Laznik’s team Roger who won with 14,769.7 total Fantasy Tennis points.
As you can imagine, he is over the moon.
“Being part of the Grand Slam Finals is just magnificent. I hope it is going to be a spectacle like last year. Another great battle with Roger and Rafa will be dreamlike,” he told ausopen.com.
“Visiting Australia is a huge thing for me. Half a year ago, I could not even imagine it. Last year, during Roland Garros, I was talking to my friends that maybe next year we'll go to Paris to watch tennis but now I am going to a Grand Slam final thousands of kilometres away. It is just fantastic.”
Laznik, a Geography student working hard on his masters degree at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, plans to take a break by catching some Grand Slam action Down Under and then spend a few more weeks exploring the best beaches, country and cities Australia has to offer.
“I have never been to Australia before. I want to explore Melbourne and Sydney as much as possible, as well as the attractions in the neighbourhood like Phillip Island, Great Ocean Road, Blue Mountains,” he said.
The Slovenian is a big sports fanatic. He cycles, swims, plays soccer, table tennis and, of course, tennis. Given he came first in Fantasy Tennis, a game that required you to predict the top performers in both the ATP and WTA tours week-in, week out, he’s also a pretty good analyst – which is why we picked his brains on the 2018 Australian Open.
“In the men's singles I would say Roger Federer or David Goffin. In the women's singles it's a harder call to make. Maybe Elina Svitolina or Karolina Pliskova. Caroline Garcia is also an option but I do not know how serious her injury from Brisbane is,” Laznik said about his favourites to win the upcoming Grand Slam.
“I also think that Roger and Rafa are going to win at least one Grand Slam each. I cannot say the same for Andy and Novak.”
Matej also believes there is plenty of underrated players with promising futures ahead in 2018.
“Nick Kyrgios, Juan Martin del Potro, Andrey Rublev, Aljaz Bedene, Borna Coric, Hyeon Chung, Denis Shapovalov, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex de Minaur are all players to watch. And for the women, I’d say Daria Kasatkina, Elise Mertens, Ana Konjuh, Aleksandra Krunic, Catherine Bellis, Belinda Bencic, Marketa Vondrousova and Polona Hercog.”
A great thing for tennis, no doubt, but a headache for anyone creating a team of 16 players to go to Fantasy Tennis war with.
Register for Fantasy Tennis 2018 to be in the running for Australian Open 2019 finals tickets, airfares and accommodation.
