DAY 5 REPORT

When I posted today's pick 'em specific OoP, I said:

"3rd on CC: Pics 51% v Ancic 43% - pick 'em match of the day by far"

Well, it turned out to be the match of the day by any measure, didn't it - what spectacular play on both sides before Ancic finally prevaile.

I'm still miffed with Berdbrain though, for losing so abjectly and thus 'denying' me the top 10 place I would otherwise have had after Mario's win. Strangely, I (and others who choose Kohli to beat 'dasco in R1 and Berdbrain to beat Ancic in Round 4 like me) are now going to have to stop cheering for Ancic and instead cheer for our arch-nemesis so far, Verdasco, because him reaching the QFs will do us a lot less damage than Ancic getting there. How fickle the pick 'em scoring system can make us!

Anyway, Berdbrain's loss was the only big shock today, with Ancic-Ferrer having always looked like it would be too close to call, which is why I gave it the MOTD designation (and, I imagine, why the AELTC put it on Centre Court) in the first place.

TEAMS LEAGUE

The league has now stratified into four distinct layers, with over a point between each group but the teams in each group being covered by less than a point.

Centre Court finished the day where they started, in 1st place, but only by 0.1 points. AM.com usurped CC for part of the day, taking a nowadays rare turn at the top of the pile, but despite dropping back to 2nd by the end of the day, they have the top score in R3 so far.

The Feddies seem to have lost their top half of the draw advantage and while they are still in 3rd place, they have dropped off the pace a bit and Rusedski.co.uk, up 1 to 4th, are just starting to catch them up a little, after overtaking BT.net, down 1 to 5th.

The two teams that head the third 'layer', T4Y, up 3 to 6th, and MTF, down 1 to 7th, are separated by the ridiculously low margin of 1/1000th of a point, with TAT, down 1 to 8th, JM.org, up 1 to 9th, and LleytonHewitt.biz, down 2 to 10th, about half a point adrift of them.

Finally, the Ducklings, up 2 to 11th, Tennisopolis, down 1 to 12th, and the Dammitaires, not usually seen near the bottom of the table, but down 1 to 13th today, are beginning to look doomed to be also-rans this time.

GROUPS

In the group comps, Females lead Males (the AO being the only other slam they have won since BotB started properly with Wimbledon last year), U18s lead O18s (after losing all four previous slams to the adults) and Fans lead Actives (after winning both previous slams this year), and none of these positions have changed since the first results were posted at the end of day 1, though the O18s have at least managed to win a round.

INDIVIDUALS ON THE WAY UP

MaryS (AR), taking part in her first BotB, ended the day in 1st place (having spent part of yesterday there before dropping to 2nd) and she is followed by two of today's top scorers (6/8), fah51 (CC), up 11 to 2nd, and lejla_roger (RF), up 28 to 3rd.

The other entrants who scored 6/8 on day 5 were esther (AM), up 145 to 26th, mary91 (RF), up 153 to 51st, fishflaps (CC), up 169 to 53rd, and fastest climber of the day, tlimvvo2max (CC), up 177 to 87th.

INDIVIDUALS ON THE WAY DOWN

Yesterday's leader d_s (MT) had a nightmare of a day, dropping 26 places to 27th after getting just 2/8 correct, but a fair number of people got just 1/8 right, including the two biggest fallers, louised (MT) and Joana (GR), both down 187 to 302=.

TEAM KO

Three of the four QFs are quite close at the halfway stage:

(1) Centre Court Forum 10.71
(8) BritishTennis.net 10.14

(12) JamieMurray.org 10.50
(4) AndyMurray.com 11.15

(14) TalkAboutTennis 9.87
(6) Rusedski.co.uk 10.74

(7) RafaelNadalFans 12.00
(15) Tennisopolis.com 9.50

... for the scores in the 9th-16th matches, please refer to the full site update at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html

SATURDAY'S MATCHES (with % picking each player to win)

1st on C3: Garcia-Lopez 0% v Schuettler (nobody) (93% went for Flake to win this one)

2nd on CC: Muzza 86% v Haas 6%
2nd on C1: Dammit 74% v Simon 6%
2nd on C2: Tipsy 3% v Tursunov 1% (95% went for Duckboy to win this one)
2nd on C18: Clement 1% v Melzer 1% (94% went for Kolya or Ljubo to win this one)

3rd on CC: Rafa 98% v Kiefer (nobody)
3rd on C2: Youzhny 55% v Count Duckula 41% - pick 'em no. 1 match of the day
3rd on C11: PHM 56% v Cilic 24% - pick 'em no. 2 match of the day

In case anyone has been wondering, the pick 'em 'matches of the day' are those where the highest number of entrants are likely to make big moves one way or the other, i.e. the matches with large numbers of entrants having gone for each of the two players.

DAY 6 / END OF R3 REPORT

Has there ever been another Wimbledon first week where every men's singles match was completed on the day it was meant to be, I wonder?

Today's two crunch matches both involved two players who had faced each other four times before. In the case of Youzhny/Count Duckula (2-2 H2H), the previous meetings were all 4-5 years ago, but in the case of Chokieu/Cilic, they had all happened this year, with the Frenchman leading 3-1 and the H2H on grass 1-1, PHM having won at Queen's and Cilic having won a week later in Nottingham. The 3-1 margin and the fact that Queen's tends to be a much better guide to how players will do at Wimbledon than Nottingham made me go for PHM, but the pressure of having to win in order to avoid me just missing out on a top 10 place for the second day in a row was obviously too much for him. (what do you mean, that wasn't the top thing on his mind?!)

TEAMS LEAGUE

Centre Court won R3 (the second round they have won in this tournament) and, with four entrants in the top 10 (the only team with more than one) it is not surprising that they have consolidated their lead at the top of the table.

AM.com in 2nd place are still within a point of them, while Rusedski.co.uk, up 1 to 3rd, and BT.net, up 1 to 4th, have overtaken the Feddies, down 2 to 5th, thus ensuring that GB-based teams now fill all of the top four places.

JM.org, the only team outside the top three to score more than 21 points in R3, are also on the way up, rising 2 to 7th today, while T4Y and TAT have both dropped 2 places, to 8th and 10th respectively but the Dammitaires, up 2 to 11th, have climbed off the bottom.

INDIVIDUALS

fah51 (CC), up 1 to 1st and the outright top scorer in R3 with an amazing 11/16 correct, has overtaken joint R1 winner MaryS (AR), down 1 to 2nd, and opened up a 2-point lead by getting one more pick correct than her today. One of the joint R1 winners, Duchess (CC), up 3 to 3rd, is a further 2 points back.

Joining the top 10 today are James Comerford (BB), up 7 to 4th, and Russiafan (CC), up 11 to 9th - they replace miffy (AM), down 12 to 21st, and eblunt (BT), down 13 to 23rd.

MOVERS

Although they got one less R3 pick correct than the current leader, the top scorers (with a superb 6/8) and fastest risers today were jamatthews (BT), up 155 to 62nd and ... wait for it ... sallydaisy (JM), up 155 to 102nd! Have you ever needed better evidence of what a crazy tournament it has been? Seriously though, congratulations to Sally for proving that even serial gorilla-botherers can have their day in the sun!

The lowest scorer today was ridomi (AR), who had already been in last place and didn't get a single pick correct, leaving him with just 2/16 in R3 as a whole. However, the biggest fallers included those who scored 1/8 today - DanChen (TN), down 147 to 186=, Holly (IN), down 167 to 303, Sarah (AR), down 134 to 347=, and BalaK (AM), down 48 to 395th.

OUTLOOK

Nine entrants have 6/8 quarter-finalists still surviving as we go into R4 - they range from the current leader and two more of the top 10, through the two entrants who top scored today (see above) all the way down to B-Boy (IN), who is currently languishing in 333rd place, but must have big chances of a three-figure rise on Monday.

TEAM KO

QF RESULTS

(1) Centre Court Forum 22.03
(8) BritishTennis.net 20.76

(12) JamieMurray.org 21.43
(4) AndyMurray.com 21.91

(14) TalkAboutTennis 19.50
(6) Rusedski.co.uk 21.95

(7) RafaelNadalFans 21.60
(15) Tennisopolis.com 18.42

The semi-finals (CC v AM and GR v RNF) should be decided on Monday, weather permitting. For the 9th-16th place results and 5th-16th place draws, please see the detailed results at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html.

NEXT WEEK

Pick 'em takes a rest on Sunday (so enjoy a stress-free day!) but Monday is a big day, with all R4 matches due to be played. After that, weather permitting, men's singles matches will only be played every other day.

I will post Monday's matches with their pick %s on Sunday evening.