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

Drew · Aug 12, 2009

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

steven · Tennis legend

Conclusive proof that Montréal is bonkers this year - GBTennisGirls are 1st in the teams comp and Babfive from GBTG leads the individual by 2 points!

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

Kohlschreiber is going to break my heart, I can just tell.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Did anyone have Petzschner in R3?

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

He's 1% so not very many. :)

Silver · County player

UP 5 WHOLE PLACES! *caps lock of joy*

Drew · Aug 12, 2009

Down to 17th but since then my last 3 picks just won and fingers crossed for Gonzo and Rafa wins.

Drew · Aug 12, 2009

Ta for the update Steven...my last 3 wins take me within 2 pts of the top...hope Gonzo plays well...cant see Rafa losing !

steven · Tennis legend

MONTREAL MASTERS BOTB - DAY 3 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Day 3 finished early, with a retirement in Rafa's match (but it was Pics, not him!) and Haas retiring against Gonzo too. The matches that caused the most movement were the wins for Stani (52%), Gonzo (57%) and Simple (76%), while the upsets were all damage limitation for those of us whose winner picks for the matches concerned went out in R1, with JCF (picked by just 6%) Youzhny (5%) Hanescu (3%) and Petzschner (1%) all beating more heavily backed opponents.

Detailed results can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html, with 'headlines' appearing on http://twitter.com/botb1 as well, while for a nicknames guide, please see http://www.andymurray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=253)

TEAMS

At Wimbledon, they fought it out for last place a long way adrift of the rest, so it may say something about how the results have been here that Tennisopolis, up 1 to 1st, and WTA experts & long-time day 3 leaders GBTennisGirls, up 3 to 2nd and the winners of R2, have moved their battle to the top of the table in Montréal!

R1 winners Rusedski.co.uk dropped 2 to 3rd, though are only 0.02 behind GBTG, with BT.net, up 2 to 4th, just 0.04 ahead of the Feddies, down 2 to 5th. Team CC also dropped 2 places and are now 6th.

Moving up fast are JM.org, up 4 to 7th, AM.com, up 5 to 8th, and BBC 606, up 3 to 9=, a position they share with the Ducklings, up 1, the six players in each of those two teams having managed identical numbers of correct picks (76/144 in R1 and 65/96 in R2) so far.

On the slide are the Dammitaires, down 4 to 11th, TAT, yo-yoing back down 3 to 12th, and MTF, down 5 (down 9 in two days!) to last.

INDIVIDUALS

Entrants were flying up and down the table almost as much as on Tuesday and when the dust settled, Swissgirl (IN) & Babfive (GB) had both got 9/12 correct on day 3 and risen 3 places to share the lead.

Hev (IN) & JAMES4578 (JM) also got 9/12 and moved up 18 to 3=, a point off the lead, while 7 entrants who got 8/12 dropped one place to 5= - Daniel/Belgarath1981 (RF), abc (BT), Inokas (ND), Kels (AM), Drew (BT), Renan (IN) and highest placed newbie Vladan (ND) are all 2 points off the lead.

Apart from the top four, five more players who got 9/12 on Wednesday shared the top score in R2 with 13/16 correct - T01 (CC), Smidster (BT), sailguy500 (TN), poolietennis (IN) & Daniel (LH) all moved up 39 to 12=. Carrying on the theme of groups of entrants moving up or down in unison, the three overnight leaders all got 7/12 on Wednesday and dropped 16 to 17=.

ON THE RISE

Nobody who started the day outside the top quarter of the table managed to get more than 8/12 correct on day 2, so unusually the biggest rise of a day was less than 100 places, with three AM.commers hfwardhouse (AM), DR4Life (AM) & drewziph (AM) all climbing 80 places to 147=.

DODGY DROPPERS

Getting 50% on day 3 was enough to avoid a three-figure drop, though newbie big D man to the Z (AM), down 99 to 150, surely deserved one for having such a silly nickname (any guesses as to what it means?!), but nine of the players who scored less than 50% did drop more than 100 places, with Fedex (GR) & mysterX (TA), both down 163 to 214=, dropping the most out of those who got 5/12 correct but getting out-plummeted by GiulioAxe (MT), down 200 to 251= after getting just 4/12 correct.

shotgun (MT), down 44 to 271st, and the gorillas also got just 4/12 but the new 'lanterne rouge' is shortbreadsue (AM), aka sound's mum, down 5 to 272nd. Still, she should take heart from the performance of Dark Necrofear (CC)'s mum MACBORG (CC), who is 20= in her second BOTB, nearly 100 places ahead of her son. It's cool the way some people are getting the rest of their family involved and thus adding a family battle to the intra- and inter-team ones!

OUTLOOK

Despite the chaos of the first three days, all of the top 11 seeds survived to reach R3 and over 2/3 of the entrants have all of their quarter-finalists still standing going into R3, ranging from joint leader Swissgirl (IN) all the way down to patrick (TA) & Silver (BT) way down in 268=!

Conversely, three of the top 20 have less than 7 quarter-finalists still standing, including the other joint leader Babfive (GB) with 6, but everyone has at least five 'live' R3 matches except sallydaisy (JM) in 253= - picking Count Duckula, Haas, ili & Robredo to get there means she has only four. As so often in the past, she must have known that the hungry gorillas would need some rescuing at this stage!

OoP AND PICK %s

CC1 at 15 GMT: (4) Nole 92% v Youzhny 0% (1)
BN1 at 15 GMT: (6) Potty 96% v Hanescu 0% (0)
CC2 nb 17 GMT: (5) Duckboy 96% v (10) Verdasco 4%
BN2 nb 17 GMT: (3) Muzza 97% v (Q) JCF 0% (0)
CC3 after RvV: (2) Rafa 86% v Petzschner 0% (0)
BN3 after MvF: (8) Kolya 55% v (11) Gonzo 23%
CC4 nb 23 GMT: (1) Fed 98% v Stani 1%
BN4 nb 23 GMT: (7) Tsonga 77% v (9) Simple 21%

QUOTES OF THE DAY

A computer crash meant that I lost the quotes I had collected on Tuesday, so I'll be back with a complilation from the last two days after I've been round the boards posting this.

steven · Tennis legend

QUOTES OF THE DAYS (Tuesday and Wednesday combined)

1minutetomidknight (AM) started the day with an appalling pun "There Isner end to this man's talents" (he'll get his coat!) but later came up with quite a good one: "Berd stuffed with cabbage?"

Pebs (MP) had had problems with both players before: "berdy v kohli.... ah how I debated this one... neither one wins when I pick them... Kohli currently leading having taken the first set.. guess which one I went for..."

Still as you'd expect in a match between two serial muppets who escaped the infamous Muppet Detector, it wasn't plain sailing even for the winner - -David-- (AM) "Kohli you son of a goats MUM double faulting on match point. TAXI!" I never realised Fed and the cabbage were related!

Sound (AM) came up with a new nickname for the Czech muppet (even if he is in no. 2 position behind Count Ducklula for Czech muppetry this tournament): "Berdych Head holds."

He then decided that "the Commentator deserves the quote of the day - when Davydenko survived a tough game against Mathieu: ''Davydenko done well there to escape the GEM!'" If only! Sadly, I think it was just the way the commentator says 'game'!

SuperBrat (CC) was not at all happy: "SB (CC) Really ****** off cos my crucial ones were Hewitt and Karlovic and they both lost. How comes Haas has never or rarely won a set off Ivo then wins today? W*****! Had I not seen that and Ivo hadn't been on fire lately I'd have gone Haas." She wasn't the only one wishing they hadn't checked the head to head before predicting!

DJ (MP) was not happy either: "i can't remember for the life of me who else i had. so i'm going to go to bed, and hope that i had all the people who won. 'cos if i didn't i'll just end up lying awake, utterly pissed off, and wondering how bad it's going to be once i've woken up and marat's gone and done the deed for me." What, while she's sleeping?! Ah yes, I get it now ... in her dreams ...

The next morning, she was inclined to think a certain SGB should not get all the blame for tempting fate: "To be honest, i don't think we should blame SallyDaisy for that horrific Safin result. Safin could quite honestly be 6-0, 5-0 up these days and still find a way to pretty much have a mental break down. seriously, i reckon if Nadal had drawn safin in the first round of wimbledon he'd have played just for the sake of it 'i cannot bend my knees, no? but it is safin, no? i could play him on one leg and he'd still find a way to lose, no?'" That's my personal fav of the last two days, not least because it came from a Safin fan LOL, though the next one came close.

jaydu (AM) also got a bit of a shock when he looked at the scores: "I'm only two points off the lead, so decided to be brave and look at my draw sheet ... OMG there is so much pink in there i thought it was dewster's wardrobe!"

The head muppet detector thought he had spotted two more of them as well, or maybe just an excuse to have another gratuitous dig at the d-ster: "dewster and sound spend so much time moaning about Muppet im beginning to think they are Statler and Waldorf"

Tinamarie (TA) adjusted her target: "sigh. new goal: NOT making steven's report for worst score."

Former world no. 1 Pebs (MP) was feeling fatalistic too: "the way this has started out for me... Murray will lose today" - fortunately that was yet another prediction she got wrong!

Another former world no. 1, Ashley Harkleroad's ***** (MP), may be too chicken to play these days, but it doesn't stop him rolling home at 2.43 am in a happy mood: "sela legend boooooom no soy patroiotico sino guaaaaaaaaaaaaaay hasta las putas tíos cabroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon" - quite ...

Being slight the worse for wear (I assume) the next day didn't stop the Colombian from gloating at his former teammates' expense: "Glad to see the usual custom of a Colombian ****ing all over Pebs and Jo in BOTB - this time though it's Falla" ... who eventually lost.

Rondun (JM) smelt a rat, or some kind of animal anyway: "I'm demanding they do a DNA sample along with Robredo's next doping test.
There's definitely frog or pig in there somewhere." (no, I've no idea about the pig bit either!)

Pebs (MP) brightened up a bit the next day too: "ooo verdy playing ... I must look into a stream ... "
Later ... "at least Verdy took first set 6-1 I dont mind more of that!"
DJ (MP) "u don't mind a bit of breadsticking from verdy, hey???"
Pebs (MP) "nope, i reckon I could live with that!" (once again, no idea what they're on about!)

1minutetomidknight (AM) felt the collective embarrassment as the GB Tennis Girls team hit the top: "Argh that's annoying beaten by complete amateurs lol" And the rest of us are pros, are we?!

Someone else with a red face was suffering from embarrassing parent syndrome, or maybe just trying to deflect attention from his own abject performance:

Sound (AM) "Does anyone know what it feels like having a mum who is languishing down in last place in the pick 'ems?"
Hawkeye (AM) "Only a wee baby gorilla."
jaydu (AM) (aka Mr Harsh) "i imagine minnie would have some idea."

Still, at least someone was happy - sid (AM) "WimbledonAce we are both aving a great run in the pick ems,fingers crossed we can both keep up near the top.I love these games however i do,its such great fun." Awwww ...

Drewziph (AM) was feeling in the pink too (get out of dewster's wardrobe!), but is probably now worrying about the length of his nose: "up 80?!?! Joint Mover of the day?!?!? YAY. Starting so badly was all part of my ploy to jump up the table and gloat about my one good day!" Yeah, right! LOL

N.B. I'm all quoted out for a while ...

PaulM · Tennis legend

No Andy you CANNOT do this to me!!

...

Oh thank god! ashamed

-- Edited by PaulM on Thursday 13th of August 2009 07:51:54 PM

Drew · Aug 13, 2009

A-Rod you are forgiven...just !!!

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

I've just realised that my only hope of doing well this week is for Simon to win later.

Guess my only saving grace there is that he's playing one of his 'sort'.

Drew · Aug 13, 2009

Dam that Gonzo muppet...had set point in the second set....then lost it 7-5 !!!

Drops me doon...still Rafa, Fed are shoe-ins...cmon Tsonga !!!

steven · Tennis legend

MONTREAL MASTERS BOTB - DAY 4 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Amazingly, after the chaos of the first couple of days (or perhaps because of it, maybe it made the job of the top seeds easier), the top 8 seeds all made the Montréal QFs, with only Duckboy and Potty dropping a set in R3.

That means there are no shocks to report today, but the big swing matches were Kolya (picked by 55%) beating Gonzo (23%) to take their H2H to 5-0 and Tsonga (71%) beating Simon (21%) in the all-GEM match.

Detailed results can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html, with 'headlines' appearing on http://twitter.com/botb1 as well, while for a nicknames guide, please see http://www.andymurray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=253)

TEAMS

The WTA experts at GB Tennis Girls who won R2 seemed to be about to drop away at one point but recovered later in the day to finish it up 1 in 1st place. They are followed by R1 winners Rusedski.co.uk, up 1 to 2nd and still odds on favourites to end the tournament as the new no. 1s in the overall team rankings, and Team CC, up 3 to 3rd.

The other teams moving up are the Dammitaires, up 7 to 4th and the R3 winners after going for Tsonga to beat Simon in a very big way, and world no. 1s TAT, up 2 to 10th.

The biggest fallers were overnight leaders Tennisopolis, down 6 to 7th. BT.net, down 2 to 6th, JM.org, down 4 to 11th, and BBC 606, down 3 to 12th, also fell back but MTF are still in last place.

INDIVIDUALS

No less than 100 entrants got a perfect 8/8 score in R3, easily a record, making it a brutal day on which 'only' getting 7/8 produced a significant fall unless you were already near the bottom.

Swissgirl (IN) is now out on her own (two points ahead of the field) after Babfive (GB), with whom she was sharing the overnight lead, dropped 31 to 32nd after getting 2 quarter-finalists wrong.

Like the leader, the rest of the top 10 all got 8/8 R3 winners correct. Inokas (ND), Renan (IN) & Vladan (ND), all rose 3 to 2=, while T01 (CC) & Smidster (BT), both up 7 to 5=, are behind them only on tiebreak.

Robxon (BT), up 10 to 7th, and Sue (TN) & MACBORG (CC), both up 12 to 8=, are another point further back, while completing the top 10 on tiebreak, WimbledonAce (AM) & Charlie02123 (TA), both up 17 to 10=, head a group of 9 players who are 4 points (i.e. just one QF win) off the lead.

ON THE RISE

Starting about 2/3 of the way down the table and getting 8/8 was the way to shoot up the table the most and three entrants rose more than 75 places - LadyTigress (JM) & jamatthews (GB) both went up 76 places but the biggest climber of the day was mysterX (TA), up 80 to 134th, making this the second day in a row that an 80 place rise has been the biggest of the day.

DODGY DROPPERS

Even some of those who got 7/8 correct dropped a few places, so getting only 4/8 correct, as 7 entrants did, was lethal. It cost Osmeone (KC) 210 places (down from 27= to 237th), while Sher (CC) fell 184 to 243rd and eblunt (BT) went down 104 to 263rd, though a few players who had been higher up the table to start with fell even further than the latter despite getting more R3 winner picks correct.

The other four players who only got 50% for R3 now fill the bottom four places, with Keith Nunn (AM) and sallydaisy (JM) on another mercy mission from the banana plantation, both down 18 to 271= and sharing last place, though still some distance from the gorillas' cage.

OUTLOOK

One good thing about all 8 seeds reaching the QFs is that 239 of the 272 entrants (88%), including all of the top 90 and 98 of the top 100, have all their semi-finalists still standing, so most people have plenty still to play for, though you have to feel sorry for the two entrants with only two semi-finalists left.

In addition, the top 10 have picked five different champions between them and the top Potty picker is in 19=, so this BOTB is almost certain to go right to the wire - only a Tsonga v Kolya Final can stop it from doing so.

OoP AND PICK %s

Day session from 17.00 GMT

(3) Muzza 89% v (8) Kolya 5%
(1) Fed 96% v (7) Tsonga 2%

Night session from 23.00 GMT

(5) Duckboy 76% v (4) Nole 21%
(6) Potty 67% v (2) Rafa 30%

QUOTES OF THE DAY

I'll be along with some quotes in the morning or may wait and do Thursday and Friday quotes together on Saturday, it depends on how other things go.