2008 Madrid AMS 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

steven · Tennis legend

RE: 2008 Madrid AMS 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

steven · Tennis legend

John's policy of always backing Muzza to win is finally paying off - he's up to 3rd place after the first semi, though he will only finish in the top three if Simon beats Rafa, whatever happens in the Final.

mjd · Challenger qualifying

well Fed out and now Nadal out that's upset a lot of people - except John of course!

.

-- Edited by mjd at 18:46, 2008-10-18

steven · Tennis legend

SATURDAY REPORT

A couple of amazing 3-set semis left neither of the top two seeds in the Final and decided the team competition. Two great matches that made me end up cheering against each of my semi-final picks! Gilles Simon had not even been picked to reach the semis by anyone, let alone the Final. You can view the detailed results, etc, at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

Muzza's win against Fed took him to his third Final in as many tournaments (all mandatories too!) and ensures that AM.com will win the teams comp this time. TAT, still in 2nd, will remain there if Simon takes the title but JM.org, up 1 to 3rd today after winning the SF round, will make it a Murray forum 1-2 if Andy wins his second AMS event in a row. They swapped places with BT.net, down 1 to 4th.

Rogi's loss meant that the Feddies dropped 2 to 7th (though Rafa's loss means they can no longer drop to last place as they would have had he won the Final) and allowed T4Y & Rusedski.co.uk to each climb a place to 5th & 6th respectively, while the other move was at the bottom of the table, where MTF climbed a place to leave the Ducklings in last and certain to stay there.

INDIVIDUALS - TOP 10

The start of day leader, Gogo (AM), picked Muzza to reach the Final and has now opened up a 4-point gap in 1st place, but will drop out of the top three if he wins again on Sunday.

Pick 'em debutant Sandy (AM), up 3 to 2nd, will win the contest if Muzza wins the Final and is followed by John (BT), up 3 to 3rd, and joint R1 winner Allan (AM), up 3 to 4th, who will end up in the top three if Andy wins. Bruce (GR), up 4 to 5th, completes the top 5.

aedra1119 (TA) was the highest-placed entrant not to pick either finalist and drops 4 places to 6th, while WallaceEMann (GR) drops from 3rd to 10th, with Boarder35m (MT), R3 winner Suliso (TA), who will finish 5th if Muzza wins, and LadyTigress (JM) all moving up 5 to 7th, 8th & 9th respectively.

ON THE MOVE

If you started the day between 2nd and 170th, then if you picked Muzza to reach the Final, you went up and if you didn't, you went down. The biggest riser was ian carlisle (BT), up 48 to 67th, and the biggest faller was randy van heusden (IN), down 29 to 62nd.

HOW THE MIGHTY ARE RISING AGAIN

World no. 6 ASE (AM), up 33 to 39=, and world no. 1 Ashley Harkleroad's ***** (IN), up 37 to 41st, have at last made it into the top 50, while world no. 7 WimbledonAce (CC), up 45 to 77th, and world no. 3 Wendy (AM), up 36 to 90=, have at last made it into the top 100 and have Muzza as their winner.

gazzpash · Club Coach

Gutted I missed this tournament. ah well I got excuse now for my low ranking lol

murrayman650 · ATP level

woooooooooooo!!!!
mentioned in dispatches for the first time
up 48 biggrin

john · Top national player

Get in there! My best tournament ever lol

steven · Tennis legend

Well done John!

FINAL REPORT

With Muzza winning his second AMS title in a row, the Murray teams ended up dominating the Madrid pick 'em and a lot of the British serial 'heart over head' pickers (who must be very happy that you can now justify picking Andy with both!) had their best ever pick 'em results, with all but one of the Madrid top 16 coming from ENG, SCO or NIR.

For detailed results, an updated hall of fame, etc, please see http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

Muzza's win ensured that AM.com won Madrid easily and that JM.org moved up a place to make it a Murray 1-2, with TAT dropping a place but remaining in the top three.

The only other movement was near the bottom, with Team CC managing to climb above the Dammitaires to finish 7th and the Ducklings moving up one to leave MTF in last place for the first time this year.

INDIVIDUALS - TOP 10

In a very tight finish, Sandy (AM), one of just five first-timers in this event, had a dream start to her pick 'em career, Muzza's win taking her up a place to 1st by a single point with perfect timing! This means that the pick 'em has been won by a debutant both times that Muzza has won an AMS title, Edward Seator (BT) having won the pick 'em for Cincy!

John (BT), up 1 to 2nd, and one of the R1 winners (the other two finished outside the top 150!), Allan (AM), up 1 to 3rd, completed the top three, the latter sharing the highest number of correct picks (36/47) with long-time leader and joint R2 winner GoGo (AM), down 3 to 4th but the only non-Muzza-to-win picker in the final top 15. R3 winner Suliso (TA), up 3 to 5th, completed the top five.

Moving up into the final top 10 after picking Muzza to win are jasonblueboy (IN), up 5 to 6th, mintsauce (AM), up 11 to 7th, Michael (JM), up 13 to 8th, James Comerford (BB), up 14 to 9th, and eddie (AM), up 15 to 10th.

ON THE MOVE

Swissgirl (IN), up 59 to 74th, was the fastest riser on the final day, but three other well known entrants managed to climb more than 50 places thanks to Muzza's win - Murrayfan11 (TY), up 53 to 52nd, Imoen (BT), up 51 to 62nd, and Sallydaisy (JM), up 57 to 73rd.

The biggest faller was luvs10s (TA), down 18 to 36th.

GROUPS

Actives beat Fans for the first time this year but Fans lead 8-1 in 2008, 10-4 overall.

Females beat Males but Males lead 6-3 in 2008, 9-5 overall.

Kids beat Adults for the fourth pick 'em in a row and lead 6-3 this year. The series is now tied 7-7 overall.

THANKS

... to Bethan for dealing with the emails generated from the entry forms and to everyone who took part. Despite my low finish, this pick 'em has probably been the most fun since the Roland Garros one, but the post count on AM.com in particular having shot up, thanks to various people who know who they are!

NEXT PICK 'EM

Paris AMS will have another Sunday deadline, because the main draw is scheduled to start at the same time on Sunday as in Madrid, but the draw is scheduled for Friday, entries will be able to open nearly 24 hour earlier than this time, giving a longer entry window. See you there, hopefully, for the last pick 'em of the year!

Overall ranking details coming later.

-- Edited by steven at 19:50, 2008-10-19

steven · Tennis legend

POST-2008 MADRID AMS RANKINGS

The new overall rankings have now been posted. Four people left the rankings after not playing any pick 'ems since last year's Madrid AMS, but five newbies took part in their first pick 'em here this year.

TEAMS

There was again little change in the team rankings, with Team CC, still the only team with three 500-point scores this year, holding onto 1st place despite a very weak event by their standards. However, Madrid winners AM.com, up 1 to 2nd, overtook Rusedski.co.uk, down 1 to 3rd, and the top 5 have got even closer now going into Paris and then next year's AO, when the team rankings will start to be rolling 12 month rankings like the individual ones.

The only other position swap was the Feddies climbing into the top 10 at the expense of the Ducklings.

INDIVIDUALS - TOP 10

With all but one of the previous top 10 failing to get a counting score from Madrid and the one who did, WimbledonAce (CC) WR 7 only improving her overall score very slightly, they can all count their lucky stars that they have remained unchanged, with Wimbledon Pick 'em Champion Ashley Harkleroad's ***** (IN) still leading from the previously incredibly consistent Flintstone (IN), who had a shocking pick 'em this time, and Wendy (AM), who doesn't seem to like Madrid pick 'ems too much!

Not all of the previous top 10 survived though, with hfwardhouse (AM) & RoastLamb (AM) both moving up 8 to 9th & 10th respectively after finishing 13th & 17th respectively in Madrid. They replace MC (MT), down 1 to 11th, and goldfish (BT), down 4 to 13th, both of whom missed the Madrid pick 'em (and a huge chance to move up the top 10 rather than out of it!) altogether.

ON THE RISE

4th place in Madrid allowed GoGo (AM) to make the biggest leap into the top 50, up 35 to 21st. 3rd placed Allan (AM) also made a big stride into the top 50, up 26 to 49th.

Madrid 5th placed Suliso (TA), up 51 to 51st, almost made it into the top 50 too, though 9th placed James Comerford (BB), up 54 to 93rd, made the biggest leap into the top 100, 2nd placed John (BT), up 68 to 178th, the biggest jump into the top 150, 15th placed Johnnylad (BT), up 74 to 215th, the biggest rise into the top 250 and Madrid 30th placed Wolfey (IN) was the highest-placed three-figure riser, up 114 to 264th.

Lower down the table, four relatively recent 'converts' to the joys of pick 'em rocketed up more than 150 places - TATKrutin (TA), 27th in Madrid and up 190 to 332nd overall, LadyTigress (JM), 25th in Madrid and up 195 to 333rd, eddie (AM), 10th in Madrid and up 266 to 350th, and Boarder35m (MT), 20th in Madrid and up 239 to 374th.

HIGHEST NEW ENTRANT

Who else but Madrid winner Sandy (AM), who almost made the top 400 with just one counting score, she enters in 401st.

LAST YEAR'S MADRID WINNERS

As you might guess, last year's Madrid top two lost ground, last year's winner ForeverDelayed (BT) not managing to repeat the performance after picking Numpty to win again and dropping 19 to 71st. Last year's runner-up Dale123 (AM) missed his first pick 'em for over a year and dropped 31 to 68th. However, Keith Nunn (AM), 3rd last year, managed a top 12 finish this time around and was further ahead of the average % than last year, so he actually moves up 9 to 70th. It is an odd coincidence that all of last year's Madrid podium finishers are ranked 68th-71st!

ON THE SLIDE

In the overall rankings, the biggest sliders are usually the previous year's top three and those who missed the event altogether having done well in it last year. Vonce (AM), who hasn't played since Paris AMS last year, and falls 170 to 583rd is the only player to fall more than 100 places without dropping out of the rankings altogether.

For detailed final Madrid AMS BOTB results, an updated pick 'em Hall of Fame and new overall rankings, please see http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Looked like a good competition. Congrats to the winners and to John for the top BT placing. Sadly nowhere near a computer to enable me to pick for this one but I can recommend the Fête des vendanges at Banyuls (France) as an alternative! Looking forward to challenging again in Paris and then wondering what on earth I am going to do until January.

Akhenaten · Pro player

Bad news Goldfish - your inactivity has cost you the hallowed title of "BT no. 1 pick-em player." cry

Dusty Dick has claimed your throne to become the new BT No.1! smile

And with Goldfish's drop from world number 9 to 13 - the unbelieveable has happened - BT no longer has a player in the Top 10!! OMG!!!

I remember the days - years back - when BT ruled the world at Pick-Ems Contests. Oh, those were the days...

Congrats to John too!! biggrin

Superbly well played. Think John is of potential Top 10 calibre (top 25 at least). Just needs to buckle down, try not to pick up any unwanted keyboard injuries & put up a good performance in the Aussie Open to set him up for a breakthrough year in 2009.

steven · Tennis legend

It's just like a speeded up history of proper tennis really - British Tennis (.net) thrived when hardly any other countries (boards) played, but throw a dozen boards and 60 countries into the mix and the slide begins until only Andy Murray (.com), (Fedex from) Rusedski (.co.uk) and Henman (well he was our "WimbledonAce") are still flying the flag in the top 10.

When you look at it like that, it was inevitable really. bleh

-- Edited by steven at 16:13, 2008-10-20

Smidster · Challenger level

Thanks again Steven, and others, for all the work you do to run the pickems...certainly make the events more compelling (and infuriating at the same time)

johnnylad · Tennis legend

I think 15th is my best ever showing as well!

I picked Andy to win this week not really believing he would. I was so pleased for him but even more please for my pick em!