Looks like I was the first one of us back last night, though it was nice to find that Bethan had managed to do an update during the day after all. I updated the site just after midnight but the need to sleep after a long day at Wimby prevented me from finishing my report at the same time. Better late than never ...

DAY 3 'ON-SITE' REPORT (aka the "it doesn't make any difference if you're there, they still lose" report)

The biggest shock of the day was, of course, Nole going out to Safin. Just 9 entrants (2%) managed to get this one right and 5 of them still ended up down on the day, suggesting that this wasn't the only mad pick they made! However, this result helped one of pick em's most famous participants, sallydaisy (JM), down 55 to 255=, to avoid what would otherwise have been a drop of over 100 places.

Longer-term, this result will be great for the 9% who had Nole going out before the semis and fairly neutral for the 70% who had him reaching the semis then going out there. The 16% who had him reaching the Final and losing there will, of course, lose out, unless someone manages to take Fed out before the semis too, while the 5% who picked Nole to win the title probably need a repeat of the kind of thing that happened the last time it was the Chinese year of the rat (when we had a Krajicek-Washington Final) in order to have any chance of a good placing in the final table.

Out on a packed Court 18, which was generating more noise than Centre (including a huge cry of "arrr-rrriba", presumably when a point went Chile's way) when I went out to watch a bit of the Eaton & Slabba v Bryans doubles match on Court 19, normal muppet service was being resumed, with Gonzo going out to Boggo's conqueror Bolelli.

However, since 15 of the winners on day 3 were each picked either by more than 80% of us or by less than 10% of us, the match that would cause the most movement in the table was Verdasco-Rochus. The 53% of us who had Kohli to win desperately needed Rochus to win this one in order to avoid losing two points to all 41% who had Verdasco winning. When the Belgian won the 2nd set tiebreak, it looked like we might have a chance, but by the time I got over to Court 11 to see the end of the match, it was hard to see how Ollie had even nicked a set, because Verdasco was completely overpowering him. No amount of shouting "Hey Ollie, do you know that 241 people's pick 'em chances depend on you!" was going to make a difference, so I kept quiet and thus avoided the very odd stares that would like have followed!

Early on in the Bozoljac-Gicquel match, it had looked like lucky loser Bozo might once again save those of us who had picked Monfils to win as he went two sets up, but when I finally got to that match in the gathering gloom (it was the last match to finish, just after Rochus had lost), I was just in time to see him go down in 5, though he was fighting to the end. Oh well, so much for any hopes that my presence courtside would help my picks to do any better! LOL

TEAMS LEAGUE

Despite not affecting that many people in the individual standings (yet), the Safin win was the result that ended up deciding which team would be in 1st place at the end of the day, because 5 of the 9 entrants who picked Safin to win were Feddies. Judging from their forum, they've been having a bit of a contest between themselves as to who dares to predict Rafa and Nole to go out the quickest so that "Rogi" doesn't end up having to play them!

So, the Feddies, up 2 to 1st, regained the lead, with yesterday's leaders Centre Court just 0.07 points behind (since they have exactly the same team size, this means that they are separated by a single R2 pick by just one team member on either side going right or wrong!), while AM.com moved up another place into the top three.

The only other team to rise more than one place was TAT, the team that won RG, up 2 places for the second day in a row to 9th. The biggest movers of the day though were the Dammitaires, who slid 5 places to 13th, with the Verdasco and Wawrinka wins hurting them the most.

INDIVIDUALS

With 10/16 correct, d_s (MT) retained 1st place, but is now the outright leader, 2 points clear of cazza99 (AM) and duchess (CC), who got one match less correct and are just ahead of four others on 72 on tiebreak. For many in the top 100, getting Verdasco right and getting 10/16 was enough for a 20-40 place rise, while having Kohli to win that match and getting 9/16 produced a similarly-sized drop, while in the bottom half of the table, 9/16 tended to be good enough for a rise up the table.

MOVERS

The top scorer of the day with 12/16 correct and the fastest riser was lejla_roger (RF), up 90 to 7th, one of the few people who picked the Safin win without making lots of other crazy picks too. I'm sure the irony of the fact that she is from Serbia won't be lost on you!

The lowest scorer was Azarielle (RG), down 2 to 407th with just 4/16. To be fair, her picks don't look particularly implausible, but it looks like all of the close matches in the top half in R1 and R2 have gone against her. The biggest faller, though, was RobH (BT), down 236 to 279th after he got 6/16 - with so many matches going the way of the big majority or going the way of a tiny minority and only one match close to the 50:50 area, it wasn't really the day to have gone against the pack unless, like today's biggest riser, you happened to get your against-the-grain picks (Safin, Gicquel and Verdasco) exactly right.

TEAM KO

Apart from the Rafael Nadal fans (collectively the top scorers of the day) and Rusedski.co.uk having moved out to big leads over the Individuals and the Dammitaires respectively, every other last 16 match has less than a point in it, and just to show that, despite the draw being seeded, none of the KO matches are a foregone conclusion, bottom seeds the Ducklings lead top seeds Centre Court at the halfway stage, though only by 0.09 points which, given their team sizes, means only about three individual picks out of the 1000 individual picks on which their scores are based so far.

LAST 16 - after 16 of 32 matches

(1) Centre Court Forum 17.26
(16) AndyRoddick.com 17.35

(9) Other Boards 17.00
(8) BritishTennis.net 17.46

(5) LleytonHewitt.biz 16.67
(12) JamieMurray.org 17.57

(13) Tennis4you.com 17.36
(4) AndyMurray.com 17.74

(3) RogerFederer.com 17.94
(14) TalkAboutTennis 17.53

(11) RichardGasquet.net 15.50
(6) Rusedski.co.uk 17.89

(7) RafaelNadalFans 19.33
(10) Assorted Individuals 16.05

(15) Tennisopolis.com 17.50
(2) MensTennisForums 16.90