2008 US Open 'Battle of the Boards' Pick 'em Contest

Portsey · Intermediate Club Player

RE: 2008 US Open 'Battle of the Boards' Pick 'em Contest

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Why did JCF have to withdraw!!

I picked Evans on the assumption he wouldn't be fit to play the whole match, but would just fancy the money!

At least no-one major for me went out today...

Salmon · Tennis legend

Colonel Youzhny is out.

Cipolla will replace him.

eblunt · Club Coach

steven wrote:
Most of the class in the field is in 245th= though *cough* - 11 of the top 25 in the overall rankings are languishing there.

Thanks for that Steven ...

wolf · Tennis legend

Querrey is demolishing the Berd-brain. biggrin

john · Top national player

Oh dear, I had Gasquet making the semis. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be caught out by the GEM once again

Silver · County player

Bloody Gasquet. I had him in the quarters. NOT HAPPY.

Ah well. I never do that well at these so if I get close to top 200, then GO ME (or as predictive text would have it: IN OF)

steven · Tennis legend

It's never been so tight at the top - BT.net and TAT have 35 entrants each, and their total correct picks are 1047-1047!

eblunt · Club Coach

Every damn time I pick that GEM thinking that for once he's going to live up to his ranking and do something, and then regular as clockwork he bottles it and goes out. I notice this time he thought "I need to make sure I ruin all those predictions" so promptly slapped in 64 unforced errors. He was probably thinking about his 4 hour lunch he'd be having soon.

As for Berdych, he might as well hop straight down the French embassy and change his nationality to French as far as I'm concerned.

If these serial loosers are ever drawn against each other in a pickem game I'm going to select 'no-winner' and leave the next round box blank.

steven · Tennis legend

Grrrr Capdeville lost to Alves from 2 sets up!

After 46 matches, the team comp is now officially ridiculously close. BT lead, their 35 entrants having amassed 1122 correct picks between them to TAT's 1121, also from 35 entrants, but T4Y (who don't have 35 entrants) have managed to get in between them with the equivalent of 1121.4 picks correct. Bonkers!

OMG now Zib is serving for the match against Reynolds in the 5th too. I wish this was suicide pick 'em! bleh

steven · Tennis legend

5th set t/b for Reynolds v Zib as Bobby breaks back, The entrant who picked Reynolds to reach the Final must be biting the walls of their padded cell ... oops, I mean their nails.

steven · Tennis legend

Day 2 'syndicated' report

After another Muppet Show on Tuesday, 3/4 of R1 is complete. Detailed results can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

BT.net rose no less than 7 places on Tuesday to take the lead - their 35 entrants have got 1189 (out of 35 x 48 = 1680) picks correct so far. They are followed by T4Y, unchanged in 2nd, with the equivalent of just over 1188 picks correct and TAT, up 1 to 3rd, with 1187 picks correct from their 35 entrants, while Monday's leaders JM.org, down 3 to 4th, have the equivalent of about 1183 picks correct. It couldn't be much closer, could it!

Further down the table, none of the top three teams in the overall rankings are in the top 6 at the USO so far, while at the bottom of the table, the Ducklings are quite a way off the pace, but they are not doing as badly as Tennisopolis, who are already disappearing into oblivion. So much for by far the biggest team being almost certain to be close to the average - the TNs are last even before averages are adjusted, which takes some doing!

INDIVIDUALS

Some consolation for the biggest team is that their leader, Mark (TN) WR 346 finished the day where he started, in 1=, as did first ever Tomas-Berdych.com entrant Portsey (TB), whose task after this will be a recruit a full TB team before next time! They have been joined on 39/48 by another newbie, Fiercehart (TA), up 2 to 1=, with a score of 19/24 today.

MOVERS

The highest scorers of the day with 21/24 were Nicki (AM), up 123 to 4=, Ivanatis (MT) & rawr (RF), both up 233 to 12=, and biggest riser of the day JTContinental (IN), up a record-breaking 317 places to 41=!

The biggest faller of the day (another record, I think) was one of a handful of players with 11/24 who failed to break 50% on Tuesday - English-boy (AM) dropped 309 places from 27= to 436=.

However, despite there being 457 entrants and loads of shocks, the gorillas are going hungry at the moment, though they have 8 entrants within 3 points of them, 6 of them being TNs.

WEDNESDAY

Round 1 concludes on Wednesday and Round 2 starts - the team KO competition will start at the end of R1, with R1 results used for seeding - remember that there are three composite teams to add to those in the teams league so that we get 16 taking part in the KO.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Gasquet.... I'll keep picking him to do well, because eventually he will do well (just like Numpty did last year), but with Kiefer getting injured and losing as well today, it's not looking good with 2 QFinalists out already.

steven · Tennis legend

A quick announcement to all teams

I've got a couple more changes to make to the spreadsheets before day 3 starts - one entrant who was entered as an individual rather than the team they usually play for by mistake and one entrant who entered twice with identical picks but slightly different names thinking the first entry hadn't got through and needs to have one of those entries removed.

Making changes at this late stage takes a disproportionate amount of time, so I really don't want to have to make any more after this (although obviously I will remove any more duplicate entries if we spot them or they are pointed out) - hence please let me know at btpickem@hotmail.com by the start of play today if there are any other problems, else be prepared to be told that it's too late to fix them. Thanks everybody.

john · Top national player

Woohoo, up to 204th.