Miami Masters 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em 2009

seagull · Hall of fame

RE: Miami Masters 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em 2009

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

eblunt wrote:

Why do I bother with GEMs ?

Because there's too many of them not too, and the one you least expect always has a fantastic run. evileye

Silver · County player

That was a phenomenal start from me. And by that, I do of course been abysmal.

Bleedin' qualifiers ruining it!

steven · Tennis legend

DAY 1 REPORT

For detailed results, please see http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

I can't remember if there has ever been a day 1 where the average score of all the entrants was below the 50% scored by the gorillas, but it can't have happened very often!

Lowlights included the poor man's Gasquet (Kohli, picked by 93% of us) losing to Dancevic and the rich man's PHM (Haas, picked by 98%) becoming Kukushkin's bunny. Kukushkin is so little known that the ATP drawsheet has him as Kazakh but the ATP BC entry form had him as Russian, though to be fair he used to play for Russia so it's an easy mistake to make.

Meanwhile, Michael Llodra (92%) took his turn to be the heavily-backed GEM to retire at the start of a tournament (there's nearly always one, except when two of them do it!) and Ljubo (98%) conformed to the general rule that for all but the very top players (and sometimes even them, e.g. Nole last year), reaching the QFs or beyond in IW means an early exit in Miami - losing to Hernandez on a hard court was a real shocker though.

Finally, the 51% of us who picked Chardy to beat Youzhny at least partly because the Russian got injured last week probably wished they hadn't been following things so closely!

TEAMS

By some strange coincidence, the top three teams in Miami are the top three teams in the overall rankings (in the same order), with Team CC heading the pack followed by Rusedski.co.uk and AM.com.

JM.org are bringing up the rear at the moment, some good performances from their more habitual gorilla-botherers unable to salvage them from the effects of having three players in the bottom four.

INDIVIDUALS

It's not usual to lead the field halfway through R1 with 75% correct, but on a day like yesterday it was quite a feat, so very well done to trisco (CC) and mataeo1983 (TA) - less than 1 in 1000 of the ATP Bracket Challenge entrants outscored these two.

Nine entrants are just behind them on 11/16, including newbie jaydon (GR), who is managing to keep pace with his father Matthew (GR), making them almost certainly the top family in this pick 'em so far.

The first of the top tenners are three points behind the leaders, Dentist Appointment (IN) WR 5 & hfwardhouse (AM) WR 6 both finding themselves in 35=, while six more players in the overall top 10 are among the 73 entrants in 90= on 8/16.

Last year's Miami winner Greg (TN) is doing a Davydenko (i.e. not defending his title) and last year's runner-up Zebra Melanija (RF) is well off the pace in 217=, but Rusedski149 (GR), who finished 3rd last year is in touch with the early leaders in 12=, as is 2007 Miami winner Cazza99 (AM) - a good way to mark the 2nd anniversary of the first of the team pick 'ems, though in those days it was just AM.com v BT.net and there were just 51 Miami entrants, c.f. 178 in 2008 and 257 this year.

The two players bringing up the rear had a day they will want to forget, failing to score even 20% - don't worry kayce (JM) & jm-fan (JM), things can only get better!

GUEST SUMMARISER

Dark Necrofear (CC), languishing in 217= on 6 points, sums up the day in a way that will strike a chord with many of us. With AM.com-style censorship applied, his summary reads:

"This is the increasing problem with this insane BOTB, the ******* players never do what they are supposed to. Take Gulbis for example, what a *****! Baggy is not at all playing well and Gulbis should've put up a better fight and edged out a win. No, he loses 6-2 6-2. Added to that Cabbage Head (*) is also out!!!!! I have made a terrible start! Then Tommy *SS! Nothing more to be said there. I gather Llodra also had a shocker. Im so furious. SLess, looks like we have to get back to your stalking player tactics to find out about form, injury and mental state before the next BOTB. (**) Damn!"

(*) Kohli, I assume (I thought for a moment Gulbis, who's ATP headshot makes him look a bit like a cabbage, but he'd already been mentioned!)
(**) Except that would have made you pick Chardy - you just can't win!

Grundon · Intermediate Club Player

Woohoo! - 3rd place after day 1 must be my best ever start (one day I might be worthy of a mention in Steven's daily summary)

Gamble on picking qualifiers paid off yesterday

-- Edited by Grundon on Thursday 26th of March 2009 12:17:03 PM

steven · Tennis legend

Goodness only knows how, but you lot have shot up the teams table into 1st, mainly thanks to Gil beating Zverev I think.

wolf · Tennis legend

I knew Sweeting and Stakhovsky was going to come back and bite me - those were the only two I really stopped to think shall I shan't I?

Still 9th isn't bad.

jamatthews · Strong Club Player

Poor Roberta, tying with King Kong.

Mind you there are quite a few of our bigger names down there too...

steven · Tennis legend

DAY 2 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Another crazy day, which had the lead changing hands frequently and gorillas in the top 100 at one point. It may be best remembered (or best forgotten depending on who you picked) for Chela throwing away a match against Reynolds where he won the 1st set 6-0, was (if I remember right) a break up in one of the remaining sets and a double break up in the other but eventually went down in three, throwing in double faults at the most inopportune moments and getting broken in one game from 40-0 up!

Things seemed to calm down a bit at the end of the day though, and when the dust had settled, exactly half of the R1 matches had gone with the rankings and 'only' 59 entrants were still in the cage, though I think that's still the gorillas' biggest end of R1 feast so far.

For detailed results, everyone's picks with win/loss shading, etc, please see http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html

TEAMS

At one point during the day, the Miami top 6 were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 9th, 5th & 6th teams in the overall rankings in that order but that had all changed by the end of the day.

Gil's victory over Zverev completed BT.net's jump from 6th to 1st, where they ended the day. They are headed by wolf, Grundon & Smidster, who are all in 4= on 22 points. MTF, who nearly always do well in R1, jumped 3 to 2nd and the Dammitaires leapt 5 to 3rd.

Other risers included TAT, up 4 to 6th (who may be setting themselves up for another 'even days on form, odd days off form' pick 'em) and the Ducklings, up 3 to 8th. JM.org looked like they were going to be permanently rooted to the bottom for a while, but a late surge lifted them 3 places to 10th and their three players who were in the bottom four after day 1 have all now escaped from there.

Team CC dropped 4 to 5th, Rusedski.co.uk fell 2 places to 4th and the Feddies now prop up the table having dropped 4 to 13th, but the biggest fallers were AM.com, down 6 to 9th and BBC 606, down 7 to 11th.

INDIVIDUALS

trisco (CC) lost his lead at the start of the day but regained it later on and was even 2 points clear at one stage, finishing the day with 12/16 for a R1 total of 24/32. He is a point ahead of team-mate fah51 (CC) and one of day 2's equal top scorers (with 13/16) IntnstyAngle (TA), both up up 1 to 2=, then there are 10 entrants sharing 4th place a further point behind.

The other day 1 leader mataeo1983 (TA) just failed to get into double figures on day 2 and hence dropped 13 places to 14=.

ON THE RISE

10 entrants equal top scored on 13/16, one of whom has already been mentioned, and 6 more of them are in the top 25 - jasonblueboy (IN) & petalp (CC), both up 31 to 4=, world no. 4 miffy (AM), up 76 to 14= (and now the best placed out of those in the the top 10 of the overall rankings), and mmm8 (TA), Jason (TN) & Gaël (RG), who all rose 76 to 14= as well.

The other entrants who scored 13/16 on day 2 all rose more than 100 places - Gazzpash (BT) & Ace! (AM), both up 137 to 26=, and the day's biggest riser, Bruce (GR), up 161 to 82=.

Other 100+ place risers were Suliso (TA), djlovesyou (BT) & Oneminutetomidknight (AM), all up 113 to 50=, RedCabbage (BT), up 135 to 82=, and JaneInScotland (JM), up 112 to 131= - they all scored 12/16 on day 2.

DODGY DROPPERS

More than 20 entrants dropped over 100 places, with andys_ipod (AM) & J. Alfred Prufrock [Mrs] (BB), both down 187 to 199=, the biggest fallers after scoring just 5/16 on day 2.

OUTLOOK

When all the seeds get a R1 bye, you can of course ensure that all of your R2 winners are still alive at the end of R1 just by picking all the seeds to win R2, which may partly explain why 25 entrants (including two of those in equal last place) have all of their R2 winners still standing.

Apart from another player in equal last, Zebra Melanija (RF), who only has 25 R2 winners still in the tournament at the end of R1, everyone else has at least 26 still alive.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

ASE (AM), in answer to "Anyone else having problems with live score?": "Yup. It keeps telling me that all my picks are losing!"

MUPPET-PICKING EXCUSE OF THE MONTH

AllyB (AM)'s "... the nagging 'Pick the Chilean - your Papa was born there' thought that keeps making me pick Gonzo."

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Yay 100-place riser- not sure how i managed that...

Thankyou Chela for choking biggrin

Thankyou Monaco for not wink

Silver · County player

I think this whole thing is part of the reason I'm going slightly grey.

That and the squealing kids who pull at my arm until I fall over... and then paint my hair.

NO! HAPPY THOUGHTS! I actually rose 18 spots!

steven · Tennis legend

Grundon 1st outright! (for now)

Grundon · Intermediate Club Player

steven wrote:

Grundon 1st outright! (for now)

I'm sure it wont last but I'm enjoying it right now

steven · Tennis legend

It's got even better for you - Simon beating Hewitt has given you a 2 point lead and Wolf's now 2nd outright as well on tiebreak from one of the CC mob. If Scheuttler beats Nieminen, you'll end the day at least 3 points clear, while if Nieminen wins, you and wolf will be joint 1st. The Duckboy match can't change anything because all 257 entrants went for him to win.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 28th of March 2009 12:07:58 AM

Grundon · Intermediate Club Player

Lol - I'd already checked out the picks of the top few (sad I know)

Damn, Niemenen takes the first set

-- Edited by Grundon on Saturday 28th of March 2009 12:30:30 AM