2009 Shanghai Masters BOTB pick 'em - very tight entry window

johnnylad · Tennis legend

RE: 2009 Shanghai Masters BOTB pick 'em - very tight entry window

Count Zero · Tennis legend

eblunt wrote:

Steven,

Something slightly dodgy about your listing, doesn't seem to have ordered right - e.g count zero down in 159th place with 13 pts, sandwiched between the 11 and 12 pt line.
Maybe giving me a few extra points would straighten things out ....

is Steven trying to cheat me? well i never......

Count Zero · Tennis legend

so ther i go off to Steven's stats table to see how Boggo's win would get him up the rankings etc and what do i see - a red banner saying the table isn't ready due to the pickem, so not only is he cheating me in the pickem he isn't even giving the Boggo stats i need.

at this rate i am seriously going to have to reconsider our friendship

eblunt · Club Coach

johnnylad wrote:

AAARRRGGHHHHHHHH! I have Cilic losing in the final

At least he could be bothered to finished the match and bottle it properly. I have A-Rod to the final I all I get out of him is measly 7 games. Thanks for that you lazy yank barsteward.

steven · Tennis legend

eblunt wrote:

Steven,

Something slightly dodgy about your listing, doesn't seem to have ordered right - e.g count zero down in 159th place with 13 pts, sandwiched between the 11 and 12 pt line.
Maybe giving me a few extra points would straighten things out ....

If you were talking about the individuals split by teams table, I just forgot to re-sort it after the last match on day 1. It should have been fine since the first of today's results got added.

Sorry about the top 25 table, Count, there's rather a lot on an the moment, I'll get round to it when I can. Great to see the Bogster winning though

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 13th of October 2009 03:14:52 PM

Portsey · Intermediate Club Player

Portsey wrote:

I admit, the Karlovic/Blake match-up did make me wonder, i tend to not do well outside of the grand slams. But the one that got me was Cilic/Berdych. I always pick Berdych to do well (never win of course) but Cilic is beating everyone at the moment, but Berdych beat him in 5 sets last month (DC) and didn't choke, but choking is a Czech trait. I know now i've picked him to win, Cilic will win the deciding tie-breaker. Don't choke Berdbrain!

My girlfriend has just read this and would like to add the following comment:

"Just remember that all Czech people are GREAT! Ok?......."

Blimey

steven · Tennis legend

SHANGHAI MASTERS BOTB - DAY 3 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Sadly, day 3 was the day the Muppets took Shanghai. In R1, only 19% thought the German Gasquet could lose to Almagro, but he did ... only 10% thought Cilic could lose to Berdbrain, but he did ... and then to cap it all, Duckboy had to retire injured against Stani (9%) in R2 after just a few games!

(for a nicknames guide, see http://www.andymurray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=253)

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

TEAMS

By the end of the day, Rusedski.co.uk had risen 3 places to 1st thanks to easily the best performance so far in R2, while MTF dropped 1 to 2nd despite winning R1. AM.com moved up 3 places to 3rd to complete the top 3 ahead of the Feddies, up 1 to 4th, JM.org, down 3 to 5th, and Team CC, up 2 to 6th.

World no. 1s TAT held steady in 7th ahead of the day's biggest losers, BT.net, who dropped 5 places to 8th but are over a point ahead of TheDailyForehand in last place, who were apparently celebrating having two players in the top 70 ... until today when they didn't have any of them either ...

INDIVIDUAL TOP 10

The lead again changed hands a few times during the day, but when the dust had settled, overnight leader Jose Javier/Buyaka86 (RF) was back on top, but now sharing 1st place with T.x (CC), up 1. The latter shared the top score of the day (15/17) with Eddie (AM), up 16 to 3rd.

4th place is shared by cazza99 (AM) & Drop-Shot (TA), both down 2, and scooter (JM) & NyGeL (MT), both up 15, while Scotsguy (CC), down 6 to 8th, is just ahead (on tiebreak) of group of a dozen players on the same score - Steven (GR), Fedex (GR), GVGirl (TA), Allan (AM), Inokas (ND), tinamarie (TA), qczi (MT), BenP (AM) & Hen (MT), all up 10, and Smidster (BT), anne (IN) & Rusedski149 (GR), all down 7.

ON THE RISE

The two highest scorers of the day are now in the top three (see above), but the biggest riser of the day was t_torres (VB), up 119 to 50= after getting 14/17.

With the same day 3 score, fah51 (CC) & LadyTigress (JM), up 98 to 26=, nearly managed three-figure rises too.

DODGY DROPPERS

Four entrants fell more than 100 places - TarpleyTennis (TJ), down 112 to 131=, jm-fan (JM), down 101 to 167=, OSmeone (IN), down 103 to 169=, and greatunclebulgaria (AM), down 112 to 178th.

The latter got the day's low score of 7/17 along with jepg (IN), down 62 to 186th, the gorillas and last-placed gavbo (DF), down 12 to 194th - he is one of just two entrants still stuck in the cage along with former world no. 1, Pebs (MP), down 11 to 193rd.

Other sickening drops befell Silver (BT), BHar11 (TA) & PaulM (GB), all down 89 from the dizzy heights of 2= to the barely in the top halfness of 91=.

OUTLOOK

Only 4 entrants managed to finish R1 with all their R2 winners still intact - --cj-- (TA) in 26=, MJD (BT) & Gillyflower (GR) in 50=, and Eva (RF) in 102=, but they all lost Duckboy at the end of the day. All of the end of day 3 top 20 finished R1 with 14 or 15 of their R2 winners still standing.

CILIC DEFEAT

10% picked Berdbrain to win today and in the battle of the serial muppets in R2, either the 8% who picked Marat or the 7% who picked Tomas will gain more ground on the 85% of us who picked Cilic, while Simon (29%) is the main danger to the 64% of us who picked Cilic to reach the QFs.

Only 15% picked Cilic to beat Nole too, so they are likely to be in real trouble unless the Serb goes out early, especially the 10% who picked Marin to reach the Final, of whom 3% picked him to win the title.

DUCKBOY DEFEAT

Only 9% picked Stani to win today, and the 6% who picked Stani to win R2 or the 4% who picked Radek to do so will gain even more on the rest of us. Kolya (21%) and Gonzo (10%) pickers are the potential gainers in the QFs (Radek reaching the SFs would be the damage limitation option for the rest of us), while the 25% of us who picked Duckboy to reach the Final (including the 7% who picked him to win the title) will be hoping Nole does not make the Final, since he is the only player still standing in the bottom half who was picked by more than 3% to do so.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

liam_valid (CC) has just learnt that you shouldn't mess with Radek: "After being twinned with Count Duckula after the USO rankings i really should have shown a bit more faith in him durin this contest."

jaydu (AM) is having a lucky week: "when i seen cilic had gone,i had this gut wrenching feeling i had him to go all the way. imagine my relief when i seen that nice pink line running through everyone else s quarter finalist picks didn't pass through jaydu town."

Hawkeye (AM) learns that you should never count your chickens, or indeed your ducks: "I've had a decent day, only Kohli and Cilic losing. Had Cilic to the quarters though. Providing A-Rod sees off Stan I should go up a fair bit!" Famoose last palabras, no?

Like many others, Fitzy (JM) ended the day a bit depressed: "Thanks Ducky - I've now lost any hope of staying in the top 200 in the pickem." but ASE (AM) thought he must be exaggerating a bit: "Given that there are 194 entrants, that would be quite an achievement." - I wouldn't put it past Fitzy to manage it somehow, but I think actually he meant 200 in the overall rankings ...

jaysee (AM) summed up the tournament so far quite accurately: "And I thought I was doing quite well - of the close matches in round 1 (30-70% picks) I got 6/9 right, and I only had 2 under 30% picks, one of which came through. It's the ones that should have been "safe" picks (over 70%) that have really let me down with 8/13."

Finally, eblunt (BT) was showing no mercy as usual: "At least Cilic could be bothered to finished the match and bottle it properly. I have A-Rod to the final I all I get out of him is measly 7 games. Thanks for that you lazy yank barsteward."

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

Delpo gone. Roddick gone. Verdasco going...

I HATE PICK'EM

steven · Tennis legend

So that'll mean that out of the ATP top 10:

- 2 didn't even turn up
- 2 didn't even manage to finish their first match
- 1 suffered an abject loss in his first match

... and of the remaining 5, 4 haven't played yet!

If we're mad, the organisers must be apoplectic!

Still, at least one of the top 10 is definitely through to R3 - that well known crowd-puller, Davydenko. LOL

Mikeduke · County player

Surely Rafa can't lose to Blake!!!!!!!

wolf · Tennis legend

Flake goes down 6-4 in the 3rd but hopefully someone can take Nadal out soon with both my semi-finalists in the top half now out.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Blake played probably his best match for a long time when but played a very poor game when serving to stay in it.

Don't think I'm going to do well here with quite a few of my big picks already out, but if Djokovic can at least win the title I may have a reasonably decent finish in the end.

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

I thought my pickem was over at the end of play yesterday having lost my finalist (Cilic) and a quarterfinalist in Dammit (I thought he was due a good tournament but once again he proves worthy of his name).

Now, I'm much more positive, Sure I've lost another 2 quartfinalists (Hewitt and Roddick) but I've still got my winner and 3 semi-finalists which seems to be more than can be said for a lot of people.

Unfortunately my mum's still beating me and seems to have more quarterfinalists than me...still she's lost a finalist too so I may yet beat her

Silver · County player

I

Do

Not

Like

This

Game.

HERE COME THE CAPS LOCK KEY!

steven · Tennis legend

SHANGHAI MASTERS BOTB - DAY 4 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Day 3 may have been the day the Muppets took Shanghai, but day 4 was the day they overran it!

The biggest shock was my second finalist, Potty, doing what my first one had done a day earlier, i.e. retiring in his first match, allowing Melzer (picked by nobody) to go through, hence the effects of this match on the table will be delayed for a day or two. 5% pick F-loppy beat Pics Ferrer too, to leave one R3 match completely dead for everyone.

Haas retired too, allowing 1% pick Rainer Lucky to reach R3 and 1% pick Ljubo took advantage of a shocking performance by Verdasco to book his place in the last 16 too.

(for a nicknames guide, see http://www.andymurray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=253)

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

TEAMS

Rusedski.co.uk stayed in 1st place after winning R2 by nearly a point and AM.com, up 1 to 2nd, overtook R1 winners MTF, down 1 to 3rd.

The Feddies stayed where they were in 4th, but are now being caught by Team CC, up 1 to 5th, and the team that rose the most, BT.net, up 2 to 6th. Both of them displaced the team that fell the most, JM.org, down 2 to 7th, and world no. 1 team TAT fell another place to 8th too. TheDailyForehand finished last for the 2nd round in a row, but made up a tiny bit of ground on day 4.

INDIVIDUAL TOP 10

With most of the shocks having been foreseen by hardly anyone, there was not as much movement as usual in the individual table, but of course day 4's results will have big implications further down the line for those who lost their winner picks and other finalists/semi-finalists.

One of the joint leaders at the end of day 3, T.x (CC), is now the outright leader by a point despite losing his tournament winner, but amazingly even the leader has got less than 75% of the matches correct so far!

eddie (AM), up 1, and Hen (MT), up 7, share 2nd place, while the other overnight joint leader, Jose Javier/Buyaka86 (RF), has dropped down to join cazza99 (AM) & NyGeL (MT) in 4=.

R1 winner Scotsguy (CC) is 7th on tiebreak from Steven (GR), Smidster (BT), Inokas (ND), tinamarie (TA), qczi (MT), anne (IN) & BenP (AM), all up 1 to 8=.

ON THE RISE

Hen (MT) in 2= was one of 6 entrants who equal top scored on day 2 with 8/12 correct - the other five (Robxon (BT), Portsey (BT), t_torres (VB), MJD (BT) & Gillyflower (GR)), all rose 35 to 15=.

They all share the equal best R2 score (11/16 correct) with the rest of the top three, banskogirl (AM), up 6 to 15=, Gaël (RG), up 10 to 38th, and ptmcmahon (TA), up 35 to 94th.

Other entrants who matched the top rise of 35 places on day 3 were Linda (AM), Claire Bear (AM), luvs10s (TA) & Sadey (GR) (two of whom claimed to have had a 'terrible day!' so what does that say for the rest of us!), all up 35 to 110=.

DODGY DROPPERS

Everyone is now clear of the gorillas, so right on cue SallyDaisy (JM), down 89 to 115=, is off down on another mercy mission after getting just 5/12 correct on day 4.

With the same day 4 score, Claire Thompson (JM), WallaceEMann (GR) & elisat (TA) have dropped even further, down 92 to 142=, but the dodgiest dropper of the day was GiulioAxe (MT), down 121 to 142=, after joining mary91 (RF), down 37 to 182, in the 4/12 on day 4 brigade.

However, the lowest scorer in R2 as a whole was greatunclebulgaria (AM), down 12 to 190th on day 4, who was unfortunate enough to get just 6/16 R2 winners correct.

OUTLOOK

banskogirl (AM) in 15= (and one R3 win off the lead), is the only entrant with 7 of her R3 winners still standing. A few entrants still have 6 but most have just 4 or 5, though everyone still has at least 3 matches they can score for on Thursday.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

If you had Potty, Duckboy and/or Cilic going deep, you really need to hope that Rafa and Nole suffer shock losses too. Potty's loss caused a fair bit of added despair:

Hawkeye (AM) "Will the last one to leave the pick'em please turn out the lights ..."

greatunclebulgaria (AM) "Help I'm hyperventilating do I dare look at live score everything looked fine when I went shopping." - hopefully for her sake (see above), she didn't dare to look ...

Jaysee (AM) came up with a possible reason for all the early exits: "There must be some cheap deal on mid-week flights out of Shanghai ..."

Linda (AM) wondered "which muppets will actually get to the final? At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if it were Berdbrain v Floppy."

There was then an auction of woe:

greatunclebulgaria (AM) "we aren't even finished round 2 and I only have 9 live matches left for the whole comp"
Yorkie (AM) "You have 9 - you're doing well, I only have 7" - I've only got 6 despite being in the top 10 at the moment!
hfwardhouse (AM) "Well neither of you have anything to worry about at all - I have 5 live matches left" (Rafa to the SFs and 3 more possible QF-ists)

However, Jett (AR) takes that particular biscuit, with just 3 live matches left, whereas at the other end of the scale, banskogirl (AM) could still potentially score for 14 more matches!

Still, someone was looking on the bright side:

Imoen (BT) "I thought my pickem was over at the end of play yesterday having lost my finalist (Cilic) and a quarterfinalist in Dammit (I thought he was due a good tournament but once again he proves worthy of his name). Now, I'm much more positive, Sure I've lost another 2 quartfinalists (Hewitt and Roddick) but I've still got my winner and 3 semi-finalists which seems to be more than can be said for a lot of people."

Finally, liam_valid (CC) voices the Shanghai organisers' concerns: "Del Potro out, Verdasco out, Haas out, Ferrer out. Melzer in, Ljubo in, Lopez in, Schuettler in. Sounds more like a saturday night piss up than a Masters event." - maybe they misread the brief and thought their results were going to count for a BYOB contest instead of BOTB!