Aus Open 2009 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em

Peter too · Tennis legend

RE: Aus Open 2009 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em

steven · Tennis legend

'SYNDICATED' DAY 4 REPORT

Another relatively predictable day and there are 24 seeds left in the last 32. In tournaments that start off fairly sedately like this, there's always a round when all hell lets loose - I wonder if it'll be R3?

Full results up to the end of R2 can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

Rusedski.co.uk ended the day where they started it, in 1st place, though Tennis4you, up 2 to 2nd, dislodged them for part of the day and ended R2 only 0.06 points behind. Tennis.com top scored in R2 and stayed in 3rd place for the AO as a whole, though Team CC, up 1 to 4th (and they would have won almost any other KO match with their R2 score except the one they were in), are snapping at their heels.

The teams who did well on day 2, the last time the top half of the draw played, made up some ground after dropping yesterday. MTF rose 4 places to 5th and TAT rose 5 to 8th, but didn't do enough to move from one end of the table to the other like they had before, though they did do enough to see off the Dammitaires in the KO.

The main fallers were the Murray teams, JM.org dropping 3 to 9th but still holding on to beat the Ducklings in their team KO match and AM.com, plummeting 9 to 11th and getting beaten in the KO by the Feddies. The biggest shock in the KO though was bottom seeds (i.e. lowest scorers in R1) Tennisopolis beating top seeds MTF, the first time that has ever happened!

TOP 10

Wade (IN) relinquished 1st place during the day but recovered to retake it and register the highest score in R2, with 27/32 correct. NiallE (AM) settled up 1 place in 2nd after leading during the day, while Imoen (BT), currently halfway across the Atlantic Ocean on her way to Canada, I believe, regained 5 places to complete the top three.

Luke Croll (GR), up 55 to 6th, Superbrat (CC), up 18 to 7= and Arthi (IN), up 18 to 7=, all join the top 10 today, while yesterday's joint leader tennismember (TN), down 22 to 23=, was the biggest casualty out of those dropping out.

ON THE RISE

Apart from Luke (see top 10 above), only one other entrant managed to score 15/16 on day 4 - Jon Pennington Pics (TN) moved up 94 to 11= as a result.

28 entrants who started the day lower down the table than those two (and thus had further to climb) managed to rise over 100 places, with the fastest risers of the day being mary91 (RF) & jjnow (TA), both up 178 to 153= after getting 14/16 correct.

DODGY DROPPERS

Only dot (IN), down 17 to 452nd, failed to get 50% of the matches correct today, getting 7/16, but the three biggest fallers came from the dozen entrants who scored 8/16 - Mikeduke (BT), down 252 to 270=, The Man from Onken (IN), down 238 to 371= (I remember him being a top riser earlier in the week too - he got 13/16 in the bottom half but just 8/16 in the top half in R2), and FiFi Quin (AM), down 216 to 393rd.

OUTLOOK

As you can see in the WP SLR column on the results page, everyone had at least half of their R3 winner picks still alive and about 40 entrants (including the leader) saw 15 of their 16 R3 winner picks survive R2, but only three have managed to retain all 16 - 7th placed Hev (IN) (looking very likely to improve on his overall world ranking of 774 after this tournament!), 76th placed Linda958 (AR) and Shrubflower (TA) in 203=.

I'M NOT DOING 'POST OF THE DAY' THIS TIME, BUT ...

... here are some quotes from the boards, names omitted to protect the guilty!

"I have warned the office now that this morning's behaviour of coming in, muttering hello, rapidly logging onto the net and then cursing a lot is to be expected for the next two weeks"

I'm sure that's not unique during BOTB, but some people do take it a bit too seriously. I hasten to add that this is not a quote from me contemplating being beaten by Bethan:

"I think entrant X has player A in the QFs, so a player B win over player A followed by player C beating player B would see me overtake. I had to check X's picks as the idea of losing to X for the first time ever appals me so much I think I'd rather die. Indeed, if X beats me this time, I may well have to self harm. Perhaps lop off an ear or something ..."

... plus this one from yesterday ...

"Mug of the day so far is T*ssernov - served for the third set against Cipolla at 5-3 and got to set point but choked. Then had more set points in the next game. But choked. He's now 3-1 up in tiebreak, but will clearly choke."

... you can tell this one came from a good predictor!

steven · Tennis legend

TEAM KO L16

(1) MensTennisForums 42.30
(16) Tennisopolis.com 43.52

(9) BBC 606 boards 44.00
(8) BritishTennis.net 42.25

(5) JamieMurray.org 43.00
(12) AndyRoddick.com 42.83

(13) LleytonHewitt.biz 43.20
(4) Rusedski.co.uk 45.10

(3) AndyMurray.com 42.93
(14) RogerFederer.com 44.35

(11) Centre Court Forum 44.47
(6) Tennis4you.com 45.50

(7) Rest of the World 43.77
(10) Tennis.com 45.78

(15) RichardGasquet.net 41.87
(2) TalkAboutTennis 43.02

TEAM KO QFs

(16) Tennisopolis.com
(9) BBC 606 boards

(5) JamieMurray.org
(4) Rusedski.co.uk

(14) RogerFederer.com
(6) Tennis4you.com

(10) Tennis.com
(2) TalkAboutTennis

TEAM KO 9TH-16TH PLAYOFFS

(1) MensTennisForums
(8) BritishTennis.net

(12) AndyRoddick.com
(13) LleytonHewitt.biz

(3) AndyMurray.com
(11) Centre Court Forum

(7) Rest of the World
(15) RichardGasquet.net

steven · Tennis legend

'SYNDICATED' DAY 5 REPORT

No big shocks today, with Nole (picked by 93%), Fed (97%), Potty (95%) and Duckboy (89%) all winning, while Cilic (53%) was favoured by us over Pics Ferrer (32%) despite being lower-ranked and Robredo (8%) was favoured by the pick 'em entrants over his actual opponent, Lu (0%), in the match most of us had Numpty Nalby winning.

Hence it was, as expected, the Baggy (21%) v Fish (26%) and the Berdbrain (25%) v Wawrinka (70%) matches which caused the greatest movement in the table, both going against the more popular pick unfortunately.

Full results can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

Tennis4you, up 1 to 1st, grabbed the lead early on and managed to hold onto it until the end of the day this time, finishing it 0.16 ahead of Rusedski.co.uk, down 1 to 2nd. World no. 1s Team CC rose another place to 3rd, but the biggest risers of the day were TAT, up 3 to 5th, the bottom half of the draw ceasing to be weak for them thanks to the vast majority of them picking Cilic to reach R4! However, the top scorers in R3 so far are the team that was in last place at the end of R2, the Dammitaires, up 2 to 13th.

Tennisopolis, down 1 to 15th, have resumed normal service by dropping way off the pace after registering the 2nd lowest team score of the day, but they have clearly smuggled in a supply of ASE's rhubarb and ginger jam for the team KO, because after an unexpected win over the no. 1 seeds in R1, they are now playing (and beating) the lowest scorers of the day, BBC 606, the only team to fall more than two places in the league!

TOP 10

By being the only entrant to get an astonishing 8/8 winners correct today, Hev (IN), up 6 to 1st, has moved into the top spot and opened up a 4-point lead over Imoen (BT), up 1 to 2nd, who held the lead partway through the day but ended up with 6/8.

Newbie EdLavis (AM), up 2 to 3rd, completes the top three, with yesterday's leader Wade (IN) dropping 3 to 4th after getting 'just' 5/8 correct.

pawan (TY), up 25 to 5th, has joined the top 10 today (just ahead of Superbrat (CC), up 1 to 6th), as have scooter (IN), up 5 to 7th, Randall Six (IN), up 9 to 8th and dryrunguy (TA) & TennisAnyone74 (TA), both up 14 to 9=. After scoring 7/8 today, Caro (AM) & BalaK (AM), both up 65 to 11=, are both right on the verge of a top 10 place.

ON THE RISE

Apart from the leader getting 8/8 and the three mentioned in the top 10 section above who got 7/8, only 7 more entrants managed to get less than two wrong today and most of them rose more than 100 places. Two of them rose over 150 places - Matt's bouncy balls (TM), up 177 to 84th, and Dallas (TY), up 185 to 135th.

DODGY DROPPERS

Getting less than half of the winners correct today tended to mean a big drop, but it was the three who got just 2/8 correct who really suffered - y09_17028 (LH), down 236 to 275th, and the USO Tennisopolis contest winner Graphite Machete (TN), down 220 to 386th, were the only entrants who plummeted more than 200 places, while Joyce (AM) dropped 8 places to last among the humans, if still miles ahead of the gorillas.

TEAM KO

QF matches to be decided by the 16 matches in AO R3:

Main QFs

(16) Tennisopolis.com 13.17
(9) BBC 606 boards 12.90

(5) JamieMurray.org 14.44
(4) Rusedski.co.uk 14.55

(14) RogerFederer.com 13.85
(6) Tennis4you.com 14.81

(10) Tennis.com 14.67
(2) TalkAboutTennis 14.93

9-16 QFs

(1) MensTennisForums 14.10
(8) BritishTennis.net 15.08

(12) AndyRoddick.com 14.13
(13) LleytonHewitt.biz 13.20

(3) AndyMurray.com 14.30
(11) Centre Court Forum 15.20

(7) Rest of the World 14.90
(15) RichardGasquet.net 15.40

Drew · Jan 23, 2009

Drew breaks into the 200's !!!!!! Up 111 !!!

Not that it will last !

eblunt · Club Coach

GEM choke alert !!!!!!

Gasket about to blow against Gonzo from 2 sets up. Why do I ever bother with 'em

steven · Tennis legend

Gonzo-Gasquet now 11-10* in the 5th - incredible match.

steven · Tennis legend

Gasquet loses 12-10 in the 5th after being 2 sets up to hit the final nail into the coffin of my pick 'em chances. Can't really say he choked though, he was fighting incredibly hard in the last few games but Gonzo was hitting HUGE forehands. What happened after the first two sets may have been far more like a GEM choke though.

eblunt · Club Coach

Have the Aus open organisers heard of this competition ?

In the background during the muzza match, I swear I saw the letters GEM in capitals

steven · Tennis legend

I think that's the GE Capital ad you noticed

'SYNDICATED' DAY 6 REPORT

The AO has a reputation of being the slam with the most shocks - you only have to look at the last three finalists (Tsonga, Gonzo & Baggy) to realise that, and of course Safin at the 2005 AO and Nole last year have been the only slam winners not called Fed or Rafa in the last four years/

So far this year though, it's gone as close to seeding as any recent slam I can remember, with all of the top 9 seeds having survived the first week, the top half of the L16 completely filled with top 16 seeds, and the lowest ranked survivors being the no. 21 seed (Robredo) and Baggy, unseeded but a recent AO finalist. That leaves us with a mouth-watering R4 draw ... and perhaps the feeling that this will be the round when things start going crazy?

Full results up to the end of R3 can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

A good end to R3 enabled Tennis.com to win their second round in a row and climb 3 places to 1st - not bad for their first pick 'em as a full team! They also beat no. 2 seeds TAT (down 1 to 6th in the league) in the KO QFs. Rusedski.co.uk (the most successful of the top teams in the overall rankings in the AO so far) held firm in 2nd and saw off JM.org (down 2 to 9th) in the KO QFs after a very close match, while yesterday's leaders Tennis4you dropped 2 places to 3rd. World no. 1s Team CC, dropping 1 place to 4th, though they did see off AM.com (down 1 to 10th) in the KO 9-16th playoff between the top two teams in the overall team rankings.

Also reaching the KO semis, The Feddies, up 3 to 5th, had a good day, as did LleytonHewitt.biz, up 5 to 7th, and the Ducklings, up 6 to 8th. Tennisopolis, up 2 to 13th, are living a charmed life in the team KO - they scored only 7th best out of the 8 QF teams in AO R3, but were taking on the lowest scorers, so they have made the KO SFs despite being a bit rubbish!

Teams having a particularly bad day were R1 winners MTF, down another 5 places to 11th, and world no. 4s BT.net, down 4 to last place (oh the ignominy of it!) behind even the Dammitaires, which adds insult to injury because part of the reason for BT's downfall was that all 40 of them picked Dammit to win today. For a board that coined the term GEM, they don't learn very quickly, do they!

** A SPECTACULAR NEW BOTB RECORD **

Hev (IN) held onto the lead all day and would have scored a perfect 16/16 in R3 and opened up a 5-point lead had Dammit not lost the 3rd set tiebreak 12-10 and then the 5th set 12-10 as well. However, 15/16 in R3 of a slam is a fabulous score and a new BOTB record, beating the 14/16 scored by Sheddie (BT) (who ended up 1st) and Claire Bear (AM) (who ended up 3rd) in the 2007 RG pick 'em - since then, the best R3 scores in each slam have been 13, 11, 13, 10, 11 and 12.

Only 774th in the overall rankings after finishing 438th/456 in the US Open pick 'em (his first one), Hev should be an inspiration to any newbies who might be struggling this time!

REST OF THE TOP 10

In fact, the rest of the top 4 actually are pick 'em debutants, despite newbies making up less than 30% of the total entrants. R2 winner Wade (IN) climbed back up 2 places to 2nd with a perfect 8/8 today, displacing the much more experienced Imoen (BT), who dropped to 5th, while EdLavis (AM) stayed in 3rd.

Just outside the top 3, Reb (IN), the equal 2nd highest top scorer in R3 with 14/16, climbed 12 places to 4th, while Anthony Costantino (TN) climbed back up 28 to 6th (both of these entrants scored 8/8 today) and TennisAnyone74 (TA) moved up 2 to 7th. Meanwhile, esther (JM), BORRO2 (RF) & Awooga (AM) all joined the top 10, climbing 5 places to 8= to join pawan89 (TY), who dropped down there from 5th.

ON THE RISE

No less than 25 entrants managed to score 8/8 today, perhaps not a huge shock since all it involved was picking all of the top 16 seeds who were in the top half to get to R4! Out of them, Chloe F (RF), up 178 to 146=, dukel (AR), up 177 to 152=, and jm-fan (JM), up 154 to 253rd, were the only entrants to rise more than 150 places, though the majority of the others achieved three-digit rises.

Apart from Reb (see top 10), the other entrants who equalled the old slam R3 record with 14/16 correct were Shrubflower (TA), up 25 to 34th, and Dallas (TY), up 62 to 73rd.

DODGY DROPPERS

All of the seeds in the top 16 getting through in the top half also explains why even a score as high as 6/8 had people falling today if they were in the top 50 or so.

The lowest scorer on day 6 was mugzzer (BB), down 40 to 438th with just 2/8 correct, but the biggest fallers came from among about 30 players who got 3/8 - falling over 150 places made Breezy (IN), down 163 to 189th, jamatthews (BT), down 176 to 212=, MrInvisible (CC), down 194 to 286=, Canadian WXMan (IN), down 192 to 308=, Oploskoffie (TA), down 188 to 314=, and mikeduke (BT), down 195 to 357=, the biggest casualties.

OUTLOOK

As you can see in the WP SLR column on the results page, almost 1/4 of the entrants still have every single quarter-finalist standing, from the current leader all the way down to three people currently not even in the top 400, so there is plenty of scope for huge moves tomorrow and during the second week.

Everyone in the top half of the table has more than half of their quarter-finalists still standing and all entrants have at least half except jaydu (AM) and joyce (AM) in 3rd and 2nd last place respectively, who have three survivors, with the battle for the 'lanterne rouge' hotting up between them and last-placed CoolyBri (IN) - in fact, Aussie bot Skippy only has two survivors, and that is only because the middle two 8ths of the draw had no Aussies in them.

By the way, serial gorilla-botherer SallyDaisy (JM), down 22 to 425th today, is one of the entrants with just four survivors and may be thinking of making one of her trademark second week 'reverse surges' - not for the squeamish, they're as painful as they sound! It'll take some doing though, given that she is 17 points above last place at the moment, but maybe she can get close enough to throw some bananas down to her friends, who have been starving since early on day 2!

SUNDAY'S MATCHES

RLA M3: (2) Fed 96% v (20) Berdbrain 0% (just Kat AR & Andrew TN)
RLA M5: (3) Nole 88% v Baggy 1%
HiS M1: (8) Potty 77% v (19) Cilic 10%
HiA M3: (7) Duckboy 47% v (21) Robredo 2% (48% went for Numpty)

Silver · County player

BLEURGH. I'll never be able to make RG qualies with my rank. RUBBISH. These players aren't listening to me. RUBBISH!

Rubbishy.

steven · Tennis legend

'SYNDICATED' DAY 7 REPORT

Never in the open era have the QFs of a slam contained all of the top 8 seeds, but four of them have reached the bottom half QFs here and the other four are still alive in the top half of the draw going into Monday's R4 matches, with Simon (v Monfils) the only top 8 seed in the top half who was not picked by the majority of us to make it to the last eight.

With del Potro (77%) beating Cilic (10%) quite convincingly, Fed (96%) coming back from two sets down to beat Berdbrain (0%) and Nole (88%) finally seeing off Baggy (1%) at about 02.30 Oz time, it was the Duckboy (47%) victory over Robredo (2%) which had by far the most effect on the pick 'em tables today, with those who picked Numpty (48%) to reach the semis from this section feeling the adverse effects of their madness properly for the first time.

Full results, including all team KO scores, can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

Rusedski.co.uk, up 1 to 1st, have opened up a sizeable lead in their team KO SF and have regained the lead in the teams league from Tennis.com, down 1 to 2nd, while world no. 1s Team CC, up 1, are back in the top three. Not surprisingly, the Ducklings, up 4 to 4th, were the biggest gainers of the day and lead R4, while BT.net climbed 3 places off the bottom and were the only other team to jump more than one place.

Dropping more than one place are T4Y, down 2 to 5th, the Feddies, down 2 to 7th (though they lead their KO SF), BBC 606, down 2 to 14th, and Tennisopolis, down 2 to 15th, despite by a miracle of fate being in the KO SFs.

TOP 10

There seems to be no stopping Hev (IN), who got 4/4 today and has extended his lead to 8 points (i.e. two clear R4 wins), but the rest of the top 10 are covered by just two points.

In this most unforgiving of pick 'ems, if you started out in the top 300, you had to get 4/4 to move up today. Doing so were TennisAnyone74 (TA) & BORRO2 (RF), both up 5 to 2nd & 3rd respectively, Lizzim (AM) & emf123 (IN), both up 8 to 6=, Randall Six (IN), up 8 to 9th, and Dentist Appointment (IN) & Samantha (AR), both up 8 to 10=.

EdLavis (AM), down 1 to 4th, and Reb (IN), down 1 to 5th, stayed in the top 5 despite getting one winner wrong today, while only getting 2/4 meant erstwhile leader Wade (IN) dropped another 6 places to 8th, but at least held on in the top 10.

ON THE RISE

With nearly 150 entrants scoring 4/4, including even Jambondusoleil (AM), up 9 to 442 after starting the day in the bottom 10, it was those who did so from the third quarter of the table who rose the most, with Manue (RG), Drikke (MT) & LUCKYCROM (AR), all up 83 to 266=, just pipping lots of other entrants to record the biggest rise.

DODGY DROPPERS

Joyce (AM) & jaydu (AM) were the only entrants who failed to score today, each dropping another place to last and 2nd last respectively, with nobody else in the battle for the 'lanterne rouge' within 6 points of them. They both have Muzza & Flake to win tomorrow (and the former to take the title), and they will swap places tomorrow if Simon beats Monfils.

The biggest fallers, though, were those who scored 1/4 and had further to fall, with slothrop (BB), down 187 to 297th, the entrant most in need of a good parachute.

MONDAY'S MATCHES

The big swing matches (short-term swing at least) are scheduled for either end of the day on Laver - the all-GEM encounter at 00.00 GMT and the half-GEM encounter at 08.30 GMT.

RLA M1: (6) Simon 39% v (12) Monfils 52%
RLA M3: (1) Rafa 92% v (13) Gonzo 1%
RLA M5: (5) Tsonga 54% v (9) Flake 20%

HiA M4: (4) Muzza 97% v (14) Ana's ex 2%

steven · Tennis legend

eblunt wrote:
Have the Aus open organisers heard of this competition ?

In the background during the muzza match, I swear I saw the letters GEM in capitals

I can't find a good pic of a French player with their head between the GE and M of one of the GE Money hoardings, but I did find this little, er, gem which proves that Nick Bolletieri is in on it:

Gasquet is another gem and a Slam winner in waiting.

From:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/nick-bollettieri-a-true-champion-may-be-shaken-but-never-broken-456528.html

-- Edited by steven at 18:27, 2009-01-25

eblunt · Club Coach

steven wrote:

For a board that coined the term GEM, they don't learn very quickly, do they!

Excuse me !!!! It was me that started off that phrase !!

steven · Tennis legend

I know, I was talking about this board wasn't I?