Clearly those of us who thought Fed would be ready for a last stand at the Cincy Corral this week have a lot to thank Boggo for - specifically for taking Ginepri aside after he played him and teaching him how to do the classic old-style Boggo win-the-1st-lose-a-tight-2nd-crash-and-burn-in-the-3rd choke!
I've just sent another full update to http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html. Reaching a Marat level of madness, the only entrant to have lost their winner pick is now the outright leader - only Cincy can do this, because it screws up the results other tournaments can't reach!
While I am still languishing in the depths just outside the gorillas' cage, I am slightly heartened to have been joined in 198th= by such illustrious company as reigning AO champion ASE ... Grundon who is running the competition with me in Bethan's absence (and looking at how Bethan's doing this time without having worked on the comp, Grundon and I are thinking of arguing that the hours of organising clearly take such a toll on your picks that organisers should be rewarded with a 10 point bonus to compensate ) ... and reigning Kinky Khampion Claire Bear!
The two remaining matches today both have the potential to be absolutely quacking contests, with Count Duckula (well they would give the last R1 night match to someone who looks like he comes from Transylvania, wouldn't they!) taking on Eeeee-gor Andreev in R1 and Duckboy trying to get revenge for his AO defeat against Kohli the cabbage writer in R2.
Stop press: make that, as Sally on AM.com put it, the crispy Woong-Sun duck. Roddick was on the scoreboard when the match first appeared on live scores but has now been replaced by lucky loser Woong-Sun Jun, so I suppose he must have quacked during the warm-up! I bet the Americans in the crowd with night session tickets are jumping for joy about that ... not!
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
TAT, up 2 to 1st, now lead, with Centre Court, down 1 to 2nd, and AM.com, down 1 to 3rd, completing the top three. BT.net, down 2 to 10th, are bringing up the rear.
INDIVIDUALS
The three top places are filled by those who equal top-scored in R1 with 19/24 (what twisted minds they must have ) dssl973/Ma$terpiec£ (AM), up 3 to 1=, luv10s (TA), up 5 to 1=, who both got 3 of the first 4 R2 matches correct, and liam_valid (CC), down 2 to 3rd, 2 points behind.
Three more players are on the same score as Liam but behind him on tiebreak, including Osmeone (IN), up 14 to 6th, one of just three entrants to have got all four R2 matches correct so far. The other two entrants on 23 points are Gillyflower (GR), up 2 to 4=, and Canadian WxMan (IN), up 49 to 4=, who with joint leader luv10s (TA), top scored on Tuesday with 15.
MOVERS
Two players rose more than 150 places on Tuesday after scoring 14 points - Phillycheesesteaks (AM, usually TN), up 163 to 27=, and trisco (CC), up 152 to 38=.
Four players fell 155 places to 208=, but nobody could quite match the biggest mover of the day, 2007 Madrid AMS Champion ForeverDelayed (BT) (he's just not the same when Numpty's not playing ), down 168 to 221= after scoring just 5 points on day 2. He joins three other former pick 'em winners in 199= or below, which says it all about what the first two days have been like!
OUTLOOK
At the end of R1, four entrants had all 16 of their R2 winners still in the draw - timmadigan (CC), down 6 to 7= on Tuesday, qczi (MT), down 5 to 11=, patrick (TA), down 60 to 80=, and Alia Hamieh (RF), down 36 to 89=. However, they have lost an average of two R2 winners each in the first four R2 matches.
Everyone else had at least 10 R2 winners still in apart from Caro (AM), up 11 to 208=, with 9 and mccridsta (TY), up 1 to 189=, with just 8.
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
mjd - you were never really in last place, it just looked like it because you were equal with quite a few of the entrants just above you at the time you saw you were 11 from bottom. I think equal 4th last was as bad as it got.
FD - I see you've now moved up to join the 'in' crowd of past pick 'em winners (including last year's Cincy Lottery winner Claire Bear) desperately trying to hold onto our places in the top 200!
As for the BT team, you'd be last by miles if it wasn't for a certain top 600 pro in the top 10 - well done Edward, quite a debut! As it is, you're last by a few furlongs!
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!