RG BOTB DAY 2 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

A rather less predictable day today saw the muppets in full flow, the non-pick of the day (since lots of us had him going a few rounds in a weak section of the draw) being Berdbrain, who came back from two sets down against Bolelli to go up a break in the 5th. He lost that break with a double fault and then did the same again on match point. Words fail me ...

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

TEAMS

The lead in the teams league changed hands a lot today but ended up where it started, with the Ducklings.

Rusedski.co.uk had a good day and rose 2 to 2nd. and remembering a certain player's wonder run in Portuguese Futures last year, when a lot of Brits suffered ritual 'death by Machado' during his 20+ match winning streak, finally helped BT.net, who shot up the table after his win and finished as the day's biggest climbers, up 6 to 3rd, while the Feddies went up to 1st then down to 9th before finally settling in 4th, up 1 place.

Other big risers were T4Y, up 4 to 6th, AM.com, up 5 to 7th, and world no. 1s TAT, up 3 to 10th, while big fallers included former world no. 1s Team CC, down 3 to 5th, JM.org, down 3 to 9th, BBC 606, down 8 to 11th, and the Cmawwwns, down 4 to 12th.

MTF are still last and it was a very bad day for all the Robots, none of which are in the top 200.

TOP 10

Two entrants now share the lead on 38/44 - mataeo1983 (TA), up 123 to 1=, who was the outright top scorer today with 26/28, while BillBaker (TN), who scored 23/28 today, had shared the lead after day 1 as well.

23/28 today was enough for tennisfan78 (TY), Jambondusoleil (AM), trotsky3k (TN) & Kodungallur Varma/Ram (TN) all to rise 3 places to 3=, Shizzard (IN) got 22/28 and dropped 2 to 3= and Reeltime (AM) got 25/28 and rose 121 places to 3=, with all of these entrants just a point off the lead.

14 entrants are two point off the lead, but world no. 33 Speedy Hawk (AM), down 3 to 9=, is the only one of them who is in the top 100 in the year-round rankings.

ON THE RISE

Five entrants rose more than 200 places - zephblabs (TA), up 206 to 23=, WallaceEMann (GR), RobH (BT) & smitty8 (JM), all up 236 to 81=, and the day's biggest riser, NiallE (AM), up 278 to 39=.

DODGY DROPPERS

Even getting 75% correct today was not enough to avoid a fall if you started the day around the top 100 and nine players dropped more than 200 places despite scoring more than 50% on day 2. They included MICHAEL (JM), Scotsguy (CC), Matthew (GR) & Roderick Slyme (BB), all down 232 to 266=, GiulioAxe (MT), down 278 to 312=, and Drikke (MT), orangecode (CC) & John Link (TN), all down 222 to 346=.

However, the biggest faller by far after getting 50% on day 2 was the unfortunate George Camarinos (TN), down 339 to 373=.

The only entrant to score less than 50% on day 2 and still be in the gorilla's cage was gaitan36 (TN), who was the only entrant to pick Rafa to lose in R1, the only entrant to pick Fed to lose in R1, one of the few entrants to pick Muzza to lose in R1, the only entrant to pick Gil to reach the Final and the only entrant outside Duckboy's own board to pick him to win the title. Bold he may be, but it already looks like it's going to take some doing to stop him from running off with the lanterne rouge!

AND FINALLY ...

There are too many despairing comments about Berdbrain to choose from, so I'll leave the floor to world no. 1 Ashley Harkleroad's **** (MP), who showed that he's capable of being just as hard on himself as on any of the players, and with good reason: "Nothing more annoying than cheering a player on, being delighted when he wins, then going home to find out that you actually picked Robby Ginepri to win like the mentally challenged **** that you are."