2010 Australian Open 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em

johnnylad · Tennis legend

RE: 2010 Australian Open 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em

indiana · Tennis legend

How long has Soderling been carrying this injury ? Why didnt he tell me ? Then I wouldn't have had him reaching the QFS ?

OK would someone now ensure Tsonga doesn't take that place. If me and my Soderling friends can't have the 4 QF points, lets not have them going to the Tsonga brigade. I believe that's called damage limititation smile

Yes, I'm already finding ( too much ? ) this pickem thing gets you involved in matches and particular players you'ed never really bother too much about

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

looks like Gasquet got suckered today by his fitness and a niggling side injury

mjd · Challenger qualifying

The Knight wrote:

looks like Gasquet got suckered today by his fitness and a niggling side injury

Perhaps he kissed someone last night wink

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

I'm laying all blame for my position on Gasquet's shoulders. I checked at lunchtime and I was 1=, I leave Gasquet a break up in the fifth set again an opponent who was apparently cramping. I come back and dammit has struck again.

Oh well I think, at least I had him out to Robredo in the 3rd round, Robredo's reliable and sure to make it there with ease....remind me to throttle him if I ever meet him, I mean Giraldo? How could he?!

(Glad to see you're hooked Indiana, 'fraid I can't hope for your damage limitation to work as I'm squarely in the Tsonga brigade, sorry.)

Silver · County player

I'm also in the Tsonga brigade I believe. I feel like that may have been a mistake but at the same time, I'm still lamenting the loss of Robredo and Soderling. The cheeky sods. How dare they lose, HOW DARE THEY.

steven · Tennis legend

goldfish wrote:

I think someone else had him getting to R2 too - checked the % picks analysis earlier and it seemed he'd already won!

Sorry about that error, though it only lasted a few minutes. Obviously the part of the brain which controls which cell I click on couldn't believe he'd gone and lost!

eblunt · Club Coach

Pretty much on course for a typical Pickem experience :

- Early elation as I sneaked up to 20th.

- inevitable dissappointment as some key 'go deep' picks get beaten.

- near heartstop moment as finalist pick finally sturuggles through 10-8 in 5th set.

- feelings of irrational hatred toward GEMs , who as usual aren't doing what I need them to do.

What makes this Pickem even worse than all the other ones is the time difference - do you stay up all night watching the scoreboard to see your hopes individually dashed, or do you log on first thing in the morning at get all the bad news delivered in one gut wrenching hammer blow of despair.

eblunt · Club Coach

Silver wrote:

I'm also in the Tsonga brigade I believe. I feel like that may have been a mistake but at the same time, I'm still lamenting the loss of Robredo and Soderling. The cheeky sods. How dare they lose, HOW DARE THEY.

I call him 'Wronga' - whatever I pick him to do I'm always wronga.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

I wonder how long Tomic can keep this up?

steven · Tennis legend

AUSTRALIAN OPEN BOTB - R1 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

This is a very belated report on the first two days which I might manage to post before day 3 finishes if I'm lucky! Having to do two virtual all-nighters (not predominantly due to BOTB, I hasten to add) soon after being unwell took its toll and after a long and tedious 4 hour meeting yesterday, I only just managed to upload the end of day 2 results before falling asleep for a very long time!

Anyway, I know how much people who do well (or very badly!) like to see their name in lights, as it were, so it still seems worth posting this, better late than never ...

Going forward, I hope to get a day 3 report up before day 4 starts and to have got the individual results split by team table up by then as well, after which everything will be up to date. Btw, apologies for any confusion caused to anyone who checked that page in the period yesterday when I inadvertently overwrote the temporary "page not yet available" note with the barely started table, which was out of order, missing half the entrants and had most flags and team code colours wrong!

Still, the players were even more muppety than me, with 100% pick and Hopman Cup star Robredo, 99% pick Sod, 97% pick JCF, 96% picks 'battered' Fish & GEMremy Chardy, plus 94% pick Querrey just a few of those doing the walk of shame, while Dammit Gasquet celebrated his victory at CAS by returning to prime GEM (garlic-eating malingerer) form, losing a match from 2 sets up despite being a break up in the 5th against an opponent who was cramping! Great match, pity about the result ... and I must admit, I had thought that if the match went long, Youzhny would be the player I'd want in my corner, but still picked the GEM. Still, even that's not as bad as forgetting my vow to never again pick the most over-hyped player of all time (Gulbis), with the inevitable result!

TEAMS

Keeping a close eye on the lower-ranked Brits over the years helped BT.net rise 8 places to 1st on day 2, as Marsel Ilhan (who beat Boggo in qualifying) upset Moya and Stephane Robert (who has compiled 15- and 16-match winning streaks against British players over the years) upset Starace. Sadly I wasn't brave enough to pick either of them, though I was tempted ...

Day 1 leaders Rusedski.co.uk dropped to 3rd place, but the rest of the day 1 top three fell into the abyss - aided and abetted by the fact that 17 is a record number of teams (beating the previous record of 15), Feddies and Tennisopolis both managed the biggest ever one day drop, down 14 from 2nd and 3rd to 2nd last and last respectively, the latter thus failing to qualify for the team KO.

Meanwhile with remarkable symmetry, MTF managed the biggest ever one day rise, up 14 from 2nd last to 2nd!

INDIVIDUAL TOP 10

A good measure of how many crazy results there were in R1 is that this is the first time someone has won R1 of a slam with a score of less than 50/64 since Roland Garros 2007, the last time we had less than 50 entrants. Nevertheless, with a score of 49/64, Osmeone (IN) (up 23 to 1st) did very well to end R1 with an outright lead in a record field of 488 entrants, which is 7% up on last year's AO.

The five entrants who ended R1 a point behind included world no. 1 kaseldop (GR), Hev (IN) (who finished last year's AO in 3rd place) & Darius (IN), all up 22 to 2=, plus Ivanatis (MT) & Aymen Hag (LH), both up 162 to 2=, who like the leader top scored on day 2 with a score of 40/53.

They were followed by 13 entrants in 7=, 1 point further back.

ON THE RISE

A combination of so few games having been played on day 1 and so many on day 2 plus the sheer number of entrants meant there were some massive rises and falls.

The biggest riser was the last of the four entrants who scored 40/53 on day 2, Sparkey (GB), up 372 to 7=. Sarah (AR) (AR), up 359 to 20=, also climbed more than 350 places and more than 20 others rose more than 300.

DODGY DROPPERS

The lowest scorer of the day was bluestarmom187 (TN), down 16 to 488th (i.e. last) after getting just 16/53 correct and just 37.5 % for R1 as a whole, leaving her firmly in the gorillas' cage behind the only other entrant who scored less than 50% on day 2, cfn33 (BT), down 323 to 487th.

The biggest fallers, though, were the 9 entrants who fell over 400 places, including Jean-Marc (BT), HarmonicJourney (AR) & ragdoll (AM), who all plummeted 441 places from 24= to 465=. Ouch!

As far as I can tell, the biggest intra-family change of fortunes was 443 places - starting from 164=, LadyTigress (IN) rose 123 to 41= while her father KingTiger (IN) fell 320 to 484=! I'm sure she's not gloating ... much

OUTLOOK

Even the leader saw 1/4 of his R2 winner picks fail to survive R1 and only three entrants ended day 2 with 27 survivors - freerider (BT), up 17 to 7=, luvs10s (TA), despite falling 246 to 270=, and xknowledge (RF), down 178 to 342=, who must have a good chance of making up a lot of ground during R2!

TEAM KO

The draw for the team KO is as follows - qualifiers/seeding based on positions at the end of R1, matches to be decided by AO R2 scores:

(1) BritishTennis.net v (16) RogerFederer.com
(9) AndyMurray.com v (8) BBC 606 boards
(5) GBTennisGirls.com v (12) The Daily Forehand
(13) Tennis-Warehouse v (17) Tennisopolis.com
(3) Rusedski.co.uk v (14) Centre Court Forum
(11) AndyRoddick.com v (6) JamieMurray.org
(7) RichardGasquet.net v (10) LleytonHewitt.biz
(15) Tennis4you.com v (2) MensTennisForums

steven · Tennis legend

AUSTRALIAN OPEN BOTB - DAY 3 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

On a day of relatively few shocks, the muppet of the day (not for the first time in his life) was Berdbrain. He lost to 4% pick Korolev, thus ensuring that neither player in the much anticipated 'flying muppets' battle in R3 (him against Gonzo) even made it to that round in the first place! 77% pick Tricky Vicky was the other shame-faced loser, going down to 5% pick Florian Mayer.

There were a couple of near shocks, with Potty and Cilic going 2 sets to 1 down to Flake and Tomic respectively before recovering to win in 5, and a few low % winners in matches where the most fancied winner had not made it past R1, such as 6% pick Serra (proving that GEMs can win matches ... if hardly anyone picks them) and 12% pick Ivo.

TEAMS

Predominantly British teams dominate the top of the table. World no. 1 team Rusedski.co.uk are doing their best to defend 2nd place points in both the league and the KO, jumping 2 places to 1st after scoring the highest average in R2 so far, and they are followed by the two Murray teams, the 'B team' JM.org up 4 to 2nd still just ahead of the 'A team' AM.com, up 6 to 3rd.

The latter are the equal biggest risers together with the Feddies, up 6 to 10th, and have edged overnight leaders BT.net, down 3 to 4th, out of the top three.

The biggest fallers on day 3 were MTF, down 5 to 7th, and the Hewitts, down 5 to 15th, but Tennisopolis seem to be putting down roots at the bottom, which seems to invariably happen whenever they take the quantity (of entrants) over quality approach - still, as long as they're enjoying themselves ...

INDIVIDUAL TOP 10

After lots of changes at the top throughout the day, the new leader is Scruffybearmac (AM), up 6 to 1st, on tiebreak from JGS (IN), up 39 to 2nd, who is the outright top scorer in R2 so far with 14/16 after getting F-loppy, Korolev & Ivo correct and only failing to get Serra & Mayer. The former has four dead matches tomorrow (which is actually very good after the carnage of day 2), the latter six.

World no. 1 kaseldop (GR), down 1 to 3rd, is still only a point behind the leader, as is JamieL (AM), up 16 to 4th. Sharing 5th after a rise of two places are Portsey (BT), gu3 (IN) & freerider (BT), while just behind them on tiebreak is ManOfJelly (BB, or is he really Richard Gasquet in disguise?), up 33 to 8th. Darius (IN), Hev (IN) & Ivanatis (MT), all down 7 to 9=, complete the top 10.

ON THE RISE

The top scorer of the day with 14 correct is now in 2nd place (see above) but 13/16 correct on day 3 produced a number of 3-figure risers. However, the only entrant who managed to climb more than 200 places was Mom of twins (IN), up 220 to 122nd.

DODGY DROPPERS

As on day 2, a number of entrants went into free-fall, with rocketserve (TN), down 380 to 421st, and doublelix (AR), down 367 to 444th, almost crashing through the roof of the gorillas' cage before their parachutes opened.

They both got 7/16 correct, but bluestarmom187 (TN), now 12 points behind the gorillas and 21 behind the entrant in 2nd last, low scored for the second day in a row with just 2/16 - oddly enough, they weren't Rafa and Muzza or Potty, they were Serra and Korolev!

TEAM KO

Halfway through the last 16 round:

(16) RogerFederer.com 21.68 lead (1) BritishTennis.net 21.07
(9) AndyMurray.com 22.25 lead (8) BBC 606 boards 21.50
(5) GBTennisGirls.com 21.43 lead (12) The Daily Forehand 21.14
(13) Tennis-Warehouse 21.60 lead (4) TalkAboutTennis 21.54
(3) Rusedski.co.uk 22.88 lead (14) Centre Court Forum 21.50
(6) JamieMurray.org 22.35 lead (11) AndyRoddick.com 20.48
(7) RichardGasquet.net 22.00 lead (10) LleytonHewitt.biz 18.80
(2) MensTennisForums 21.00 lead (15) Tennis4you.com 19.75

Silver · County player

Holy... HOLY CRAP, HOW THE HELL DID I GO FROM 389TH TO 94TH?!

CAPS LOCK OF JOY AND WIN!

This game pleases me currently. It will not last.

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

On a day of relatively few shocks, the muppet of the day (not for the first time in his life) was Berdbrain. He lost to 4% pick Korolev, thus ensuring that neither player in the much anticipated 'flying muppets' battle in R3 (him against Gonzo) even made it to that round in the first place!

Sorry have I missed something ? I am assuming "Gonzo" is Gonzalez, who as far as I am aware is sitting happily in Round 3 awaiting a meeting with Korolev

I wish it was otherwise or that Korolev pulls out the win considering I was daft enough to put my faith in Berdych.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

luckily in that case i picked Gonzo, already made the reverse mistake at the US Open