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

Drew · Sep 15, 2009

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

eblunt · Club Coach

Drew wrote:

Thanks again Steven for all the great work and Bethan to.

Yes, thanks to both of you for maintaining the expected level of GEM dissapointment for all of us.

The Hoose · Satellite level

Thanks guys and gals. Very much appreciated and enjoyed, as ever.

Am I allowed to just say that I preferred the days of reading daily reports - and having the link to that other message board, rather than the short twitter tweet things (although I realise the latter are quicker to pull off).

Anyway, thanks again.

Hoosey baby.

steven · Tennis legend

Well done to you too, and don't worry, Twitter was never supposed to replace the daily reports, I've just had a really difficult couple of weeks and simply didn't have time to do them. They should be back for Shanghai and at least I now know they're missed when they don't appear!

The Hoose · Satellite level

Thanks for the response Steven - good to hear that your reports will be making a comeback. Incredible that you're still able to run the pickem when having a difficult couple of weeks; I'll be putting in a nomination for you in the New Year's honours lists.

steven · Tennis legend

US OPEN ROUND-UP

Apologies for the lack of daily reports during the US Open - it's not that I don't like doing them, just that I had a ridiculously busy two weeks at work (even by my standards), was working day and night and hardly even got to see any of the tennis, though I did manage to get rid of some of my frustration on the AM.com pick 'em thread!

Given that the US Open couldn't be moved (!), I thought it better to run it without reports rather than not at all, but the reports should be back for Shanghai and since I know some of you are a bit disappointed at not getting one of those (for some reason, coveted) mentions for the days you did well, I will hopefully manage to produce a roll of honour of the biggest daily movers during the US Open by the time Shanghai starts as well.

However, the overall rankings are probably more urgent, so ...

POST-2009 US OPEN PICK 'EM RANKINGS

The overall ranking list (with 764 ranked players, down over 100 since Montréal because so many of the Tennisopolis 'bribe' players were one-offs who have now dropped off the list) and the pick 'em 'Hall of Fame' after the 2009 US Open can now be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html

TEAMS

Ever since they first made it into the top three of the overall rankings after Miami this year, TAT have been 3rd, 1st, 3rd, 1st & 3rd after each successive tournament and a very good performance at the USO (2nd in the teams league, semis in the team KO) sees them continue that pattern by moving up 2 to regain the no. 1 spot!

Rusedski.co.uk have moved down 1 to 2nd after a relatively weak USO, though they do now have the top two in the individual list - see below.

After winning the teams league for the third slam in a row (one better than their hero managed!), the Feddies have improved 4 places on their previous all-time high by moving up to 3rd, the first team to get in among the big five for a while. Meanwhile, Team CC have moved up 1 to 4th and AM.com have dropped 1 to 5th.

The big losers are BT.net, down 4 to 6th after their third dire slam this year (they are now under threat from both USO team KO finalists BBC 606, up 2 to 7th, and Tennisopolis, up 2 to 8th) and the team defending the most points from last year's USO, T4Y, down 4 to 10th.

NEW TOP 10

I could hardly believe my eyes when I fed in the USO ranking points, sorted the individual table and saw where I ended up, but because seven of the previous top 10 players had very high scores to defend from last year's USO and none of them managed to get close to defending all of them (plus none of those who did really well at the USO this year started the tournament in the overall top 50), the remaining three players in the previous top 10 have moved up to fill the top three places in the rankings despite none of them managing to get a counting score at the USO either!

So kaseldop (GR) moves up 2 to become world no. 1 for the second time, steven (GR) moves up 6 to 2nd and Lizzim (AM) moves up 7 to 3rd, the latter two both hitting big new career highs.

mathiasR (RF), up 5 to 4th, and Miffy (AM), steady in 6th, are the only members of the post-Montréal top 10 to hang on in there. Jtdrum10 (TA), up 7 to 5th, jasonblueboy (IN), up 25 to 7th, T01 (CC), up 12 to 9th, and timmadigan (CC), up 21 to 10th, have all entered the top 10 with new career highs and BORRO2 (RF), has regained 8th place after dropping from 8th to 16th post-Montréal.

OLD TOP 10

Post-Montréal number 1 goldfish (BT) was defending 7th place points from last year's USO and drops 17 to 18th after finishing 93rd this year.

Meanwhile, Pingponger (TA), 19th last year, had relatively low 8th and 9th best backup scores to bring in after a poor USO and drops from 2nd to 55th, Christian (BT), 6th last year, drops from 4th to 26th, GoGo (AM), 33rd last year, from 5th to 23rd, and Akhenaten (BT), 10th last year, from 7th to 35th.

ON THE RISE

Only two of the USO top 20 had started out in the top 100 of the rankings and only one of them did better than at last year's USO - DJ (MP), 11th at this year's USO, is the highest riser into the overall top 20, up 65 to 16th. The fastest riser into the top 30 is Dark_Necrofear (CC), up 85 to 29th, the fastest riser into the top 40 is emf123 (IN), up 104 to 33rd, and the fastest riser into the top 50 is Ace! (AM), up 123 to 46th.

No less than three former world no. 1s from over a year ago have rejoined the top 50 after coming back into form - cazza99 (AM), up 64 to 38th, Linda (AM), up 115 to 44th, and ASE (AM), up 28 to 45th.

Further down the table, Omegadoom (TA) is the biggest riser in the top 100 with a rise of 176 places to 97th, while US Open winner gu3 (IN) soars up 266 places from 445th to 179th, with dewster99 (AM), up 206 to 240th, the only other new member of the top 250 to have risen over 200 places.

However, the fastest riser of all is buddyholly (MT), who rises 495 to 364 after a top 20 finish in only his second pick 'em and the only one of the USO top three to have done well enough in previous tournaments to end up in the top 100 is suliso (TA), up 133 to 94th.

The highest new entrant is of course USO runner-up gut feeling (IN), in at 334th.

LAST YEAR'S USO WINNERS

The big fallers are usually those who didn't play in the latest pick 'em and are running out of counting scores, so when looking at fallers it's probably more interesting to see how the top three in the event coming off from last year have fared.

Last year's USO winner MC (MT) did not try to defend this year and drops 228 to 366th, while 2008 runner-up Graphite Machete (TN) also failed to return and drops 315 to 592nd, making him the biggest faller on the list.

Claire Bear (AM), also fell a lot after finishing 3rd last year but did manage a counting score after finishing 140th this time and she has just held onto a top 100 place, falling 69 to 96th.

RANKING TWINS

The 'who is your ATP ranking twin' list will reappear after the ATP rankings that will be used to seed Shanghai have appeared next Monday.

NEXT UP

The Shanghai Masters - entries are likely to open on the afternoon (UK time) of Friday 9 October but four main draw matches are due to be played on Sunday 11 October, so entries are likely to have to close in the very early hours of Sunday morning UK time and we will all have to pick qualifiers 'blind'.

I'll Twitter on http://twitter.com/botb1 when the entry form is ready and when qualifiers have been placed and send emails (to previous entrants who have requested them) sometime after that.