Greenleaf wrote:

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This entrant called 'hebegeebee' is doing well so far. Any chance we can sign her/him? We should have a transfer season!



I did okay today - went down by just four places to 93, so more or less the same place where I was yesterday. Need to win all five of my Live rubbers tomorrow - Federer, Ferrer, Davydenko, Wawrinka and Robredo (all favourites on paper, thankfully).


Plus I need Benneteau to beat Soderling and Melzer to beat Monfils, so that I minimise damage. About 1% of people chose both Serra and Ginepri to win their match, so that is the first match of this year's RG that I am not bothered about!

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I know what you mean.  I was riveted watching Schw**ker v a GEM on the TV. not because either of them was my pick, but merely because the GEM loosing would help me more. I need to get a life.

Greenleaf wrote:

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This entrant called 'hebegeebee' is doing well so far. Any chance we can sign her/him? We should have a transfer season!

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hebegeebee is an independent, so maybe you could, if you could work out how to make contact with him! However, he's American, so the thought of playing for BritishTennis.net might not appeal!

Someone on AM.com had a look at the rest of his picks and thinks he's probably already got the title sewn up ... but we'll see!

Edit: well, he has if a GEM (Monfils) reaches the semis (!) ... if not, the Kolya pickers could all get up to a 9-point swing against him.


-- Edited by steven at 22:43, 2008-05-30

Has his GEM in the semis pick put you off? LOL I guess you can wait and see if it turns out to be inspired or not!

FRIDAY REPORT

TEAMS LEAGUE

Thanks to Andy Murray's loss to Nicolas Almagro, it was generally a bad day for the mainly-GB teams, though Centre Court held onto the lead in the team league, and a good day for the American ones. TAT, with the top score in R3 so far, bounced back from a 4-place drop on Thursday with a 5-place gain to 2nd on Friday, though they seem to be doign so much better in the bottom half of the draw than the top half that they are odds on to retrace at least part of that gain today.

T4Y have dropped a place to 3rd and MTF have dropped 2 to 5th, but the top five are covered by less than half a point, so expect to see a fair bit of shuffling of the top five places today.

There is then nearly a 2-point gap back to BT.net, down 1 to 6th, nearly another point back to AM.com, down 1 to 7th, and almost another point back to the Ducklings, up 2 to 8th, who are in a battle for 8th-10th with JM.org, down 1 to 9th and Rusedski.co.uk, down 1 to 10th.

Nearly two points further back, the Feddies and the Djokers are squabbling over 11th place, while having a couple of inexperienced players on just 19.1% and 34.9% (the next lowest is 44.1%) has unfortunately done for the chances of Tennisopolis.com, who are dead last and likely to remain so.

TEAMS KO

The top 6 seeds all made it safely through to the winner QFs, but no. 8 seeds the Ducklings were well beaten by no. 9 seeds BT.net and despite being ahead for 31 of the 32 matches (as far as I can remember), Benneteau's 5-set win in the last match of RG R2 meant that no. 7 seeds AM.com were ultimately edged out by no. 10 seeds the Other Boards (steveg, etc) by just 0.02 points. As a result of Andy's loss, they are already in trouble in their 9-16 QF against the Djokers too, while JM.org are around a point down in their 9-16 QF too.

In the main QFs, three of the top four seeds (CC, MTF & RG) are leading at the halfway point, though all by less than a point, but no. 6 seeds TAT are showing the Robots a clean pair of heels. However, TAT are weaker in the top half of the draw, so I expect the bots to mount a bit of a comeback today, though I won't be surprised if they don't manage to close the gap completely.

INDIVIDUALS

Top 10

hebegeebee (IN), who won R2 outright with 22/32 correct and is one of three entrants leading R3 at the halfway stage, has managed to open up a 5-point lead at the top - the only gap of more than a point in the top 334! He went to the top right at the start of R3, when Gulbis reached the L16, and hasn't looked back since. His riskiest pick is Monfils reaching the semis - if that comes off, I'm sure he'll win the pick 'em, but if it doesn't and, for example, Kolya reaches the semis, he won't.

Shotgun (MT) moved up 7 to take 2nd place, while Thursday's leader (and R1 winner) Tush (TN) dropped back to 3rd. Half of the top 10 changed yesterday, with Linda (AM) , up 22 to 5=, the fastest riser to make it into that élite.

Risers

Apart from the overall leader, just two entrants managed to get 6/8 correct yesterday - Jack (TA), up 64 to 11th (the only entrant to get 6/8 in R3 and the last two R2 matches correct), and Morrigan (AR), up 155 to 81st, the fastest climber of the day. A number of other entrants gained over 100 places, usually due to a combination of 5 correct in R3 and having got the last two R2 matches correct as well.

Fallers

A handful of entrants have only got Nadal (or Nole) correct in R3 so far, with Jose Javier/Buyaka86 (RF) falling the most, down 130 to 278th.

POST OF THE DAY (we might take a break from this over the weekend unless there are some real corkers ... feel free to suggest on here if you've seen any)

Hard to choose (no standouts like Thursday), so here's a selection:

eblunt (BT): "I was riveted watching Schw**ker v a GEM on the TV. not because either of them was my pick, but merely because the GEM loosing would help me more. I need to get a life." (GEM = garlic-eating malingerer, apparently )

Greenleaf (BT): "This entrant called 'hebegeebee' is doing well so far. Any chance we can sign her/him? We should have a transfer season!" (now there's a thought ... )

Kickserve (TY) realises that Bethan and I can't be quite as sad as it might first appear : "I doubt they do it by hand every time, it's probably just an oversized spreadsheet done automatically."

Trisco (CC): "Tennis4you are slowly eating away at our bite-size Mars Bar style lead iin the league and we are also getting a notable 0.8% on the schpincter <sic> scale whupping from bt.net in the KO comp" (then Andy lost and that all changed ...)

nevets (CC) after SaraLess's "Yes - my first go in the BOTB, and I am totally addicted!!": "So am I. I even thought about it in my sleep!!" - not original, but always makes me smile.

Lex (CC): "it's taken me years to build up to this level of prediction mediocrity.."

Tenez (CC): "You know it's all about luck! You just have to enter 350 times to have a chance to finish top out of 350 participants. This is what I 'd say if i lose anyway."

-- Edited by steven at 12:35, 2008-05-31

At least I got three points for Nadal, Djoko and Almagro... that would have been it. God I'm really bad at this but it's my first time! I'd have suffered quite indignantly in the women's draw!!

Robredo goes out - he won only 6 games.

This must be my worst pick 'em ever. Sunk without trace and huge ranking points to lose having been 2nd last year. I must remember to pick with a pin and my eyes closed next time. At least I could plead an excuse for poor results. Also, why is it that none of the highlighted injuries pre RG seem to be affecting players - Almagro's wrist, Hewitt's hip (?), whatever Monfils had ... and why isn't Mathieu choking this year?

C'mon Gonzalez, at least do the decent thing and beat Wawrinka for me.