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

Jack Buxton · Club Coach

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

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Wow.... I dropped 100 places in a day, and that was with me picking Robredo!!!

steven · Tennis legend

You didn't pick Robredo, you picked Tsonga. You're also suffering from having picked Gulbis to beat Duckboy in the last round, like quite a few others, and you suffered a muppet special - i.e. Dammit and Muppetman not even being in R3, Tursunov losing and Gonzo winning.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

steven wrote:

You didn't pick Robredo, you picked Tsonga. You're also suffering from having picked Gulbis to beat Duckboy in the last round, like quite a few others, and you suffered a muppet special - i.e. Dammit and Muppetman not even being in R3, Tursunov losing and Gonzo winning.

What!!! Well I meant to pick Robredo anyway!!!!! Should have checked the form more carefully before sending it off I guess cry

Well if Kiefer hadn't got injured against Minar, Niemenen had beaten an injured Gonzo, Gulbis hadn't choked against Roddick, Gasquet played to his ability, and Davydenko not lied about how interested in the tournament he was, I'd be doing a lot better smile

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, most of us have stories/tales of woe like that for this tournament I think. I'm glad I didn't find out about Kolya's comment until after the entry deadline, though I still need him to come through one more match.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Come on Sam. Fish/Querrey would really limit the damage in that section.

steven · Tennis legend

DAY 8 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Little was lost or gained in either of the first two matches on day 8, unless you were one of the three entrants who picked Fish to reach the QFs or one of the few who didn't pick Rafa. The Murray v Wawrinka match produced a fair bit of movement, but (unfortunately!), it was del Potro's win in a match which divided us almost down the middle which had by far the biggest effect on the table.

TEAMS LEAGUE

BT.net remain well clear in 1st place but with the best score in R4 so far, TAT, up 3 to 2nd, have returned to where they were at the end of R1. T4Y stay in 3rd place thanks to AM.com, down 2 to 4th, dropping out of the top three despite Muzza's win, if only by 0.002 points!

Overall no. 1 in the team rankings, Team CC, up another 1 to 5th, are starting to make an impact on the USO at last, while the Dammitaires have dropped 2 places to 6th despite still having the best unadjusted average. In the bottom half of the table, the only move is the Feddies dropping 2 places to 11th behind MTF and JM.org, I think because more of them predicted Rafa to go out before the QFs than the other teams did - wishful thinking?

INDIVIDUALS

Christian (BT) is still holding onto his lead, by just one point from MC (MT), with Dusty Dick (BT), up 1 to 3rd, another point behind. It's beginning to become clear why BT.net are doing so well in the teams league, isn't it!

The top three have opened up on 3-point gap on world no. 3 Flintstone (IN) and Drop-Shot (TA), both up 3 to 4=. Two more BTs, goldfish (BT) in 6th and CBV (BT) in 10=, are also up 3 places, as are Claire Bear (AM) in 8th and bojek (RF) in 10=, while tiphaniie (RG) in 7th and miffy (AM) in 9th have both dropped 4 places. Those two entrants plus top ten leavers Graphite Machete (TN), down 6 to 12th, and dssl973/Ma$terpiec£ (AM), down 12 to 22nd, scored 2/4 on Monday while the rest of the top 10 all scored 3/10.

ON THE RISE

The US Open Series bot, Ceres, managed to get all four results correct on Monday (the four winners having finished 1st (RN), 2nd (AM), 3rd (JMdP) and 9th (MF) in the pre-USO bonus challenge for the best results over the summer US hard court swing), but only one human entrant managed it, and amazingly he was outside the top 350 at the start of the day!

Congratulations then to David Carter (BT), up 130 to 245th and by far the fastest riser yesterday. The reason he was placed so low at the start of the day is linked to the fact that 4 of his 5 survivors were in the top half of the draw, whereas most of us have more survivors in the bottom half, so David will be hoping for lots of upsets today to stop him dropping back again.

ON THE SLIDE

Nine entrants plus US bot Homer ended up with 0/4 yesterday, the biggest faller being the only one of them who had been in the top 250 beforehand - Anthony (AR) dropped 136 places to 377th.

OUTLOOK

Today's matches are scheduled as follows:

Ashe, n/b 12.30 EDT / 17.30 UK: (3) Nole 88% v (15) Robredo 1%
Arm., n/b 13.30 EDT / 18.30 UK: (5) Davydenko 49% v (Q) Muller (picked by nobody)
Ashe, n/b 14.30 EDT / 19.30 UK: (2) Federer 97% v (23) Andreev 0% (one or two entrants)
Ashe, 2nd of the night matches: (6) Duckboy 49% v (11) Gonzo 31%

So, the Davydenko match is similar to the del Potro match yesterday, with us split down the middle on whether he would reach the QFs, while the last night match, the Battle of the Feathers you might say, should again be the other match of the day in the pick 'em sense, with even more riding on it whichever way the result goes than on Muzza-Stani yesterday.

TEAM KO SFs - halfway stage

We could be heading for the odd situation where the two finalists are composite teams who can't score ranking points, making the 3/4 place playoff the 'real' Final as far as the KO half of the team ranking points for this tournament is concerned.

(9) RafaelNadalFans 9.60
(5) Tennis4you.com 9.41

(6) AndyMurray.com 9.08
(10) Other Boards 9.60

5-8 SFs

(1) BritishTennis.net 10.17
(13) Assorted Individuals 8.67

(3) RichardGasquet.net 8.00
(2) TalkAboutTennis 10.56

9-12 SFs

(16) Tennisopolis.com 8.15
(12) Rusedski.co.uk 8.44

(14) RogerFederer.com 7.38
(7) Centre Court Forum 9.54

13-16 SFs

(8) JamieMurray.org 8.86
(4) MensTennisForums 9.60

(11) BBC 606 boards 8.67
(15) AndyRoddick.com 8.00

Count Zero · Tennis legend

bit of a drop for me

but i am still keep a 100 place margin on the shed

eblunt · Club Coach

From 250th after 2 days, I now appeared to have sneaked up to 30th or so. Unfortunately I think I'll be heading back down unless Muller can bale me out by getting rid of the undertaker.

Update : Set and a break up - go on Muller.

Pity Noles making me sweat

-- Edited by eblunt at 21:27, 2008-09-02

Silver · County player

I don't think I have either Davydenko or Muller in the quarters so whoever wins can lose in the next round and make me care not.

Count Zero · Tennis legend

hmm, looks like andreev maybe messing this up foer me now. a set u[on fed and 2bp's right at the start....

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Anyone predict a Muller/Andreev QF?

eblunt · Club Coach

Silver wrote:

I don't think I have either Davydenko or Muller in the quarters so whoever wins can lose in the next round and make me care not.

The thing is, if it's Donkey that wins, you would have been overtaken by about half the people who are up to 4 points behind you - potentially a drop of 40-50 places if you are ,say, mid table-ish. As Muller won you stay where you are.

That's basically a 2 point swing for me on that result - result. Not fussed about Fed going thru as I it's about a 0.1 point and I him to lose in the semi, but Duckboy to win is a 3.3 point swing for me, so he'd better get his finger out

steven · Tennis legend

A real pity that the Undertaker turned into a VDM for the day, but I'm with you on the Battle of the Birds result.

steven · Tennis legend

DAY 9 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Detailed results, etc, can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html

The 1% of entrants who had picked Robredo to reach the QFs and the couple of entrants who had picked Andreev to get there came very close to looking like geniuses, but the margin between hero and zero in pick 'em can sometimes be very small, as in tennis itself, and they ended up plummeting down the table as first Nole and then Fed survived 5-set thrillers. Nobody picked Tuesday's actual upset, Gilles Muller to get to the QFs, but he gave the 51% who had not picked Davydenko a lucky escape when he saw off the Russian in 4 sets.

This left the night match, the only one with more than 1% going for the underdog (49% went for Duckboy, 31% for Gonzo), to create most of the Tuesday's movement in the results tables, and surprisingly it was the most one-sided match of the night, the home favourite thrashing the Chilean 2, 4 & 1!

TEAMS LEAGUE

With Duckboy a more popular pick among BT.net entrants than among TAT entrants, the former snatched the top score in R4 from the latter at the last moment to extend their lead at the top slightly. AM.com, up 1 to 3rd, turned a very narrow deficit to a narrow lead over T4Y, down 1 to 4th, while the Dammitaires, up 1 to 5th, pushed Team CC back down into 6th place. The only other movers were the Ducklings, up 1 to 11th, swapping places with the Feddies.

INDIVIDUALS

Christian (BT) remains at the top for the 4th day in a row, still just one point ahead of MC (MT), who is another point ahead of Dusty Dick (BT), but he is 4 points clear of the 'peloton' behind.

Leading the chasing pack is goldfish (BT), up 2 to 4th, with tiphaniie (RG), up 2 to 5th, Claire Bear (AM), up 2 to 6th, CBV (BT), up 3 to 7th, Graphite Machete (TN), up 4 to 8th, and Silver (BT), up 4 to 9th (and making it 5 BTs in the top 10!), all within 2 points of her. All of the new top 9 got 3/4 correct on Tuesday - completing the top 10 are Flintstone (IN) and Drop-Shot (TA), both dropping 6 to 10= after scoring 2/4.

ON THE RISE

193 entrants equal top-scored with 3/4 on Tuesday and of these, the biggest climbers were Tenistar (TN), up 56 to 198th, and Nadia (MT), up 56 to 199th.

Dozens of entrants equal top-scored with 6/8 (24 points) for R4 as a whole.

ON THE SLIDE

Just two entrants were unlucky enough to draw a complete blank on Tuesday. They were Vanessa (TN), down 1 to 454th, who had already been near the bottom, and LadyTigress (JM), down 86 to 425th.

However, four entrants a bit higher up the table all fell more than 100 places after getting 1/4 correct yesterday. They were Elanor (RF), down 103 to 251st, sporttennis (RF), down 105 to 255=, Lex (CC), down 102 to 313rd, and shotgun (MT), down 103 to 316th.

OUTLOOK

Everybody has at least one semi-finalist left going into the QFs and many of us have all four still in the mix. The only person in the current top 16 who does not have all four semi-finalists left is dssl973/Ma$terpiec£ (AM), but he is the only person in the top 25 to have picked Muzza to win, so how far the Scot goes will determine his final position more than anything else.

Out of the top 9, 6 (including the current leader) have picked Rafa to win the title and 3 (including the player currently in 2nd place) have picked Fed. The highest placed entrants with other possible winners still in / the highest placed with all four semi-finalists left in too (if different) are:

- Nole: Flintstone (IN) in 10=
- Muzza: dssl973/Ma$terpiec£ (AM) in 12th / hfwardhouse (AM) in 26th
- Duckboy: doublelix (AR) in 70th / Mariela (AR) in 105=
- Potty: Malteaser (BT) in 153rd

Nobody picked Fish or Muller to win the title.

Looking just at today's two QFs, 84% picked Rafa to reach the SFs, so the 1/6th of entrants who didn't, and especially the one or two who actually picked his opponent to get there, will be desperate for Fish to reel him in. Meanwhile, about 2/3rds of entrants went for Muzza to reach the semis, so the other 1/3rd and especially the 11% who thought del Potro would extend his streak to 24 or more, will be looking for an Argentinian win.

TEAM KO

Two composite teams added to make the numbers up to 16 so that every team got a match in every round have gone and reached the Final, so the 500 team KO points are actually at stake in the 3rd place playoff. I think the only late reverse in this round was Tennisopolis overtaking Rusedski.co.uk at the last moment, but that could be quite important for the overall team rankings.

TEAM KO SFs

(9) RafaelNadalFans 20.80
(5) Tennis4you.com 18.59

(6) AndyMurray.com 18.49
(10) Other Boards 19.47

5-8 SFs

(1) BritishTennis.net 20.23
(13) Assorted Individuals 17.33

(3) RichardGasquet.net 18.00
(2) TalkAboutTennis 19.78

9-12 SFs

(16) Tennisopolis.com 17.91
(12) Rusedski.co.uk 17.78

(14) RogerFederer.com 15.75
(7) Centre Court Forum 18.62

13-16 SFs

(8) JamieMurray.org 16.57
(4) MensTennisForums 18.40

(11) BBC 606 boards 17.33
(15) AndyRoddick.com 18.57

THE FINALS

1ST-2ND PLACE
(9) RafaelNadalFans v (10) Other Boards

3RD-4TH PLACE
(5) Tennis4you.com v (6) AndyMurray.com

5TH-6TH PLACE
(1) BritishTennis.net v (2) TalkAboutTennis

7TH-8TH PLACE
(13) Assorted Individuals v (3) RichardGasquet.net

9TH-10TH PLACE
(16) Tennisopolis.com v (7) Centre Court Forum

11TH-12TH PLACE
(12) Rusedski.co.uk v (14) RogerFederer.com

13TH-14TH PLACE
(4) MensTennisForums v (15) AndyRoddick.com

15TH-16TH PLACE
(8) JamieMurray.org v (11) BBC 606 boards