STUTTGART, Germany - Mircea Tomescu had no idea what to expect when he signed up for the 2018 WTA Fantasy Tennis Challenge, but he knew two things: he was good at math and he loved women's tennis.
Last fall, the Romanian pharmaceutical account manager became the Grand Prize winner in the WTA Fantasy Tennis' inaugural season after earning the most points across all fantasy users worldwide with a combined total of 41,738 points from both the Season Challenge and the Tournament Challenge.
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How did Tomescu do it? He successfully picked 7 of the 8 WTA Finals qualifiers in the Season Challenge, and correctly picked the champion of 12 out of 21 events in the Tournament Challenge. His reward? An all-inclusive VIP trip to the 2019 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, where he rubbed elbows with his favorite player, Simona Halep, and eventual champion Petra Kvitova.
WTA Insider sat down with Tomescu to delve into his motivations and strategies, and discuss how playing WTA Fantasy Tennis gave him a different insight into the women's game.
WTA Insider: How did you get into women's tennis?
Tomescu: I started to watch women's tennis six or seven years ago, at the same time Simona Halep improved her ranking in 2013. I think she won six tournaments, and since that moment I started to watch women's tennis a lot.
So this contest was something I did one hour per week or whenever there was a tournament. You have to make some picks and that's it. It's not very much time-consuming. That was a great thing for me. On the weekends I'm looking at the draws and then make some picks. I told myself I can do that for the rest of the year.
WTA Insider: How did you decide to start playing the WTA Fantasy Challenge?
Tomescu: I've seen the promotion of the game at the beginning of last year and since I watch a lot of women tennis I told myself why not try it. It's a good opportunity for me to improve my tennis knowledge, and also maybe even the win a prize - not the grand prize but maybe one prize like a swing prize or something like that. But that, of course, was out of my mind in the beginning.
WTA Insider: Did you have a system?
Tomescu: No. Being the first year that the game was organized, I kind of followed my instincts.
First of all, I read all the rules from the start, because for the Season Challenge, you have to pick the players but you also have to lock them. I saw many other players with no picks for the Season Challenge. Maybe they didn't read the rules or they didn't pay attention too much on this aspect and probably that helped me. I verified all the other players to see who they were picking. For the Season Challenge you can't change it, but from tournament to tournament you can adjust a little bit the tactic.
I tried to pick one player in each quarter of the draw. This gives you the most chances to have all four players in the semis. This is the ideal strategy for the ideal situation, that you have four players in the semis.
But I also notice that other players, if they didn't have a pick in one quarter or maybe there were two important players in one quarter, they make one pick in one quarter and make the two picks in another quarter.
This is also a strategy because it might happen. You might get some extra points if you have two in the same quarter, if they play together the quarters, you have for sure one player in the semifinal.
WTA Insider: What websites did you use to help your research?
Tomescu: Just the WTA website. Sometimes I looked at the previous winners in that tournament to see how far did they do they go in that tournament previously. But sometimes it's hard to defend the title or maybe she will try to defend some points until some point in the tournament, at least quarters or semis.
And of course I was looking also at the consistency of the players during the previous year and 2018 also. But also, I think it was a bit of luck in all this because the results in women's tennis are very unpredictable. That's why it makes it very difficult to predict.
WTA Insider: What did you learn about the tour by playing the game?
Tomescu: You have to pay attention to every detail.
I can give you a fresh example. Last weekend was the Fed Cup weekend and Romania played against France. We lost finally after a dramatic decisive match in the doubles. On the Sunday, I was making my picks for this tournament. So as you probably guessed, Simona was one of my picks for this tournament. After I saw we lost the match and I know that the emotional and mental part is also important in order to be able to perform at the tournament and to be one of the four players in semis, I switched my picks to Kiki Bertens from Simona Halep. And yesterday I found out Simona withdrew.
This is the kind of instinct that you have to follow, and this knowledge comes from watching lots of tennis, lots of tournaments. Even if the tournament is not a part of the Challenge, from Bogota to Monterrey, these kinds of smaller tournaments, this helps you if you are paying attention to every detail.
WTA Insider: Ok, so the draw comes out. Walk me through your process of making your picks.
Tomescu: I look at the last results for one player and also I have to think about that player related to the surface, but not always. Sometimes I was looking to the previous year results. Sometimes to the previous tournaments in the year.
Also local players in a specific tournament. Like here, the German players they do good. Laura Siegemund a few years ago reached the finals and won it. That's why you have to think about a lot of things before making a pick.
SAP INSIGHT: A German player has won the Stuttgart title in three of the last five years (2015 & 2016 - Kerber, 2017 - Siegemund).
Of course you have to have in mind the ranking. It's always important, but it's not the decisive thing. If you look only at the rankings it's easy. You can pick the favorites and see what happens. But it doesn't get you to the prize.
WTA Insider: So was there one factor that you noticed was a better predictor than others?
Tomescu: I think the form of the player. Petra Kvitova started very well last year and I think I got her for two tournaments and she won them. So I think the form of the players is important.
WTA Insider: You picked 7 of the 8 Singapore qualifiers last year. How did you make those picks?
Tomescu: It's extremely difficult. I had six picks from the beginning of the season. Then after a short while, I picked Garbiñe Muguruza, which ended up not being good.
After the Roland Garros final, after the match between Simona and Sloane, I thought that Sloane has a chance to go in. So I had the last spot free. Even if I lost some points, I don't think there were many players who chose Sloane before that point. So even if I lost some points because I didn't choose her earlier, I thought OK, let's go with her from now on and hope that she will qualify for Singapore.
SAP INSIGHT: Every year since 2012, the finalists at Roland Garros have qualified for the WTA Finals.
The difference between me and most of the players from last year was picking Serena for the Season Challenge. I didn't pick Serena, because in the rankings, when you look at the live rankings, you also have the points that Serena has and all the points that all the players have until that moment. But at the end of the game you lose the points from the players who didn't qualify for the WTA Finals. So I was making lots of calculations.
SAP INSIGHT: In 2019, Serena Williams has been picked 39.22%, and locked in 17.77% in the Season Challenge.
In the same way, picking Garbiñe a little bit later than the others gave me a point advantage at the end because I think 99% of the players picked her early. So it gave me a little bit of advantage because I had fewer points with Garbiñe, I think 585 points, because she won a tournament and then I picked her. But in the end she didn't qualify and when you cut off her points, I got fewer points cut off than the rest of the players because they picked her earlier.
So in the last two months of the contest, I made a lot of calculations and I was looking at the Top 40 players, who their picks were for Season Challenge and Tournament Challenge. In the last part of the game, I was a little bit conservative. I knew that I had 1,100 points ahead from Sloane, and adding those 600 points from Garbiñe Muguruza gave me 1,700 points advantage. So I think this was the final gap between me and the second place.
WTA Insider: It sounds like a big part of your strategy was not just playing the game and making picks. You were researching who everyone else playing the game was picking to maximize your chances. That's smart.
Tomescu: Exactly. I took my time and I researched a little bit between the other players and as I said 90% I think that they chose Serena for the WTA Finals.
WTA Insider: To do well in the game, you really have to know not just your tennis but get a feel for the players. How has the game impacted how you see the players?
Tomescu: It's about expectations. Of course I'm a big fan of tennis and a big fan of Simona. I wish that she could win all the tournaments.
But you have to understand the player and to have in mind the physical part, the mental part, the human part. Being here in Stuttgart and seeing lots of famous players, made me see them as humans. That is the one big thing that I will leave from here with.
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