Cincy 2008 Battle of the Boards - Seator wins!

Edward Seator · Social player

RE: Cincy 2008 Battle of the Boards pick 'em competition

Salmon · Tennis legend

Here - http://www.britishtennis.net/pickem/2008cien.htm?n=1

You haven't played for two weeks and aren't due anywhere in the next two. I hope everything is all right?

Edward Seator · Social player

I was playing club tennis for the last 4 weekends in germany in the 3rd league so play singles and doubles both sat and sun, I played austria and frinton between but didnt was to overdo it, so just trained for last week, Im in Segovia already playing qualies here if i get in

Salmon · Tennis legend

Oh, okay. Challenger qualies sounds great, so good luck!

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks kfp, you're well-trained wink

Hopefully for all three of us, the Undertaker will come out fighting tomorrow. This tournament is becoming a bit like Moya's last stand at the moment. Not that I'm sorry to see him doing well, just wish he hadn't rediscovered his form here where I picked him to go out in R1!

More importantly, trying to get into Segovia sounds like an interesting move. Last year there were byes in qualifying, the 8th qualifying seed was WR 610 and Lee Childs managed to qualify - in fact, he did the same the following week in Istanbul and after that he retired, hopefully your plans are a little different. smile

It might be a lot tougher to get into this year because last year it was held this week rather than next week, and next week there are no other Challengers in Europe and no ATPs in Europe either. I realise that you probably know the relevant parts of this already, so this is really for the benefit of the others. Fingers crossed you'll get in anyway.

steven · Tennis legend

A quick 'better late than never' report on Wednesday's BotB developments:

TEAMS

Centre Court, up 1 to 1st, regained the lead yesterday and seem to have survived the defection of three of their best players annoyingly well (for the rest of us!) - however, they would have an even higher average with those three players in as well, so perhaps the rest of us should thank our lucky stars that after the defections, CC are at least still catchable!

TAT, down 1 to 2nd, lost their lead but are still well in contention with CC and a long way ahead of the Feddies, up 1 to 3rd, while Tennis4you, having a good tournament for them, move up 1 to 4th and are just ahead of R2 leaders MTF, up 2 to 5th, who are recovering from an uncharacteristically weak R1.

The biggest fallers of the day were AM.com, down 3 to 6th, but they are less than half a point behind the 3rd placed team, so the mid-table positions are changing with almost every match.

Despite the sterling efforts of the first player in the top 600 of the ATP rankings ever to (openly) play in one of these comps (some other Futures players do/have done as well, but I don't think any of them are in the top 1000 yet), BT.net are still rooted to the bottom of the table.

INDIVIDUALS

Though she still has the curse of having picked mad Marat to win the title hanging over her, luvs10s (TA), finished the day still in the joint lead, but this time she has been joined by liam_valid (CC), up 2 to 1=, while Osmeone (IN), up 3 to 3rd and in the outright lead in R2 with 11/15 correct so far, is level with them on points and only behind them on tiebreak.

It is also noticeable that despite this being a competition where those who usually do well are tending to do really badly, world no. 1 Wendy (AM), who has managed to get there without a top 3 finish in any pick 'em in the last 12 months, is showing how she has managed it, her legendary consistency (whatever the tournaments throw at us) being demonstrated by her being in the top 10 once again!

MOVERS

Five players top-scored yesterday with 8/11 correct - they were edward seator (BT), up 41 to 7=, Edged (IN) and Scotsguy (CC), both up 41 to 14=, patrick (TA), up 61 to 19= and yesterday's fastest climber, sid (TY), up 93 to 26=.

Other entrants rising more than 90 places (with 7/11 yesterday) were mkkreuk (BT) and Blodwyn (AM) and sharpie (GR), all up 91 to 69=.

The biggest fallers were two entrants who got just 4/11 correct - matthew (GR) and Swissgirl (IN), both down 96 to 144=, while dot (IN) and LadyTigress (AM) suffered similar falls, both down 91 to 146=.

OUTLOOK

The WP SLR column on the main individual table will change to show how many of each entrant's quarter-finalists survived R2 once the held over Undertaker-Chucky match has finished - who will have the most is very dependent on the result of that match.

steven · Tennis legend

Edward's now up to 2nd=! Perhaps best to enjoy it while he can - I've seen his later picks, but then the way things are going, they might nearly all come true for all I know!

Grrr at the Undertaker and the Flake - two of the three players I could have got reasonable swings from today if they'd won.

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Fed loses 1st set TB to Ivo
7-6(6)

mjd · Challenger qualifying

Ivo beat Fed 7-6 4-6 7-6

Thats me finished too!

-- Edited by mjd at 21:48, 2008-07-31

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Do I even have anyone left in the tournament? furious

EDIT: Apparently I have 2 QFs (who I didn't predict to go any further) and a potential SF in Verdasco. weirdface

-- Edited by jamatthews at 21:56, 2008-07-31

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Alcaide has a WC for Segovia. Ed now 59th Alt!

steven · Tennis legend

I know what you mean, jam, I keep seeing a chance to move away from the wrong end of the top 100, and each chance gets snuffed out. My last realistic chance of a move away from there lies with Verdasco in the match he's playing now. And yes, predictably, Lapentti has taken the first set. cry

To paraphrase a Norwegian football commentator - Ernests Gulbis, Carlos Moya, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Ivo Karlovic, Nicolas Lapentti - you boys are making my pick 'em hopes take one HELL of a beating! bleh

Actually, Edward's Muzza to win the title pick is suddenly looking a bit less over-optimistic (obviously Nole and Rafa are still in the bottom half, but let's skate over that!) - of the three other players left i nthe top half, just one has been picked by anyone to even reach the semis - and that's Ivo, ho was picked to get there by one of the 224 entrants!

steven · Tennis legend

THURSDAY REPORT

Nobody got more than half of the R3 matches correct, though we did all get at least one winner.

TEAMS

Centre Court extended their lead over TAT to nearly 3/4 of a point on Thursday and while there was a fair bit of jockeying for position in mid-table during the day, by the end only four teams had moved.

AM.com, up 3 to 3rd, benefitted from nearly 90% of their team having picked Muzza to reach the QFs, while JM.org initially went up 3 for the same reason, but lost two places when Rafa won, thus ending the day up 1 in 8th. Rusedski.co.uk, on the other hand, benefited from Fed's loss, since two of the three entrrants who picked Ivo to reach the QFs are in that team.

Although not badly affected by Fed's loss just yet, since virtually all of us picked him to reach at least the QFs and Oscar (RF) (probably soon to be known as Banished

) was the last of the three entrants who picked Ivo to beat him, everything else went wrong for the Feddies too, and they dropped 6 to 9th and will probably now finish last instead of the current lanternes rouges, BT.net.

INDIVIDUALS

Kirkus (TA), up 3 to 1st, reached the top slot early on in the day and ended up there too. Just a point behind him are five entrants who have moved up into 2= - world no. 1 Wendy (AM), world no. 15 WimbledonAce (CC), one of the entrants who picked Ivo to beat Fed, Gillyflower (GR), the only new entrant in the top 25, edward seator (BT), and nicro6 (AM), the day's joint highest scorer with 14/26, thanks mainly to the two wins by Chucky Moya today.

MOVERS

The fastest riser was the day's other joint highest scorer, joyce28 (AR), up 113 to 53=.

Nobody else moved up 100 places or more, thought quite a few moved down that far, including SallyDaisy (AM), down 100 to 126th after getting just one quarter-finalist right, Chloe F (RF), down 121 to 172nd, SONIque (AR), down 128 to 190th, and DeborahDB (RF), down 123 to 192nd.

OUTLOOK

Gillyflower (GR) in 2= is the only entrant to have all four semi-finalists left in the draw as we move into the QFs. The rest of the top 25 all have 3 left, while a few entrants cannot score any more points, the highest-placed of them at the moment being t_torres (IN) in 84=.

Sheddie · administrator

RE: Cincy 2008 Battle of the Boards 'Spot the Muppet' lottery

steven · Tennis legend

Slabba just knows he can't match Edward's picking skills! (you could try that one on him, if he's at all competitive - and you'd hope he is - that might work LOL)