2010 ROME MASTERS BOTB - DAY 2 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Many thanks to all those who entered this competition - 222 is a fair bit down on Rome last year, no doubt 'thanks' to the new Sunday start this year, but 7% up on the last BOTB with a Sunday start, which was Paris.

By the end of day 2, 16 of the 24 R1 matches had been completed. The day started with a huge shock, as JCF (picked by every single one of us to win at least two rounds) got thrashed by a qualifier, Giraldo. The victor will play the other qualifier who won on day 2 - that was Llodra, much to the delight of the 41% who thought Beck was more likely than not to lose to whatever qualifier got drawn against him.

In the other big swing match of the day, 40% pick Gulbis beat Baggy, confirming his muppety tendencies, i.e. he only wins when the majority don't expect him to. Meanwhile, 25% pick Benneteau upset no. 15 seed Querrey and will play (WC) Volandri, a 30% pick whose backers got a bit lucky when Florian Mayer pulled out and was replaced by (Q) Luczak.

Roberta the rankings bot ended the day with the same score as the gorillas, which confirms what a mad tournament it has been so far!

Detailed results can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/competitions.html and from now on they will be updated regularly each day, with 'headlines' and the odd 'quote of the day' appearing on http://twitter.com/botb1 as well.

TEAMS

The Dammitaires finished the day where they started, i.e. on top, with TAT up 2 to 2nd and Team CC, who fell away at the end of the day after holding the top spot for a few matches, down 1 to 3rd.

The biggest risers of the day were BT.net, up 5 to 4th, while JM.org did a bungee jump before ending the day up 2 in 5th.

The biggest fallers of the day were MTF, down 4 to 7th, and AM.com ended the day in last place, which is exactly where they started it.

INDIVIDUALS

The number of leaders kept changing all day, with marina36 (RG) the only entrant who had an outright lead at one point. In the end, she was joined by Vixs (AM), Scolios (CC) & Robert/AIH (IN), who like her all scored 3/3 on day 1 and 10/13 on day 2.

15 entrants are just one point behind, including world no. 1 Shabba (IN) and three other top 100 players, mmmm8 (TA), oneminutetomidknight (BT) & Jean-Marc (BT), all down 4 to 5=.

Also down 4 to 5= are Cain Bradley (BB), tinamarie (TA), Madame (TA), jemma (GB) & Bowler47 (RG), while six more of the day's highest (10/13) scorers, Suliso (TA), Strokel (RF), Alien (CC), Borovnia (TY), indiana (BT) & jjnow (TA), have all gone up 53 to 5=.

ON THE RISE

If you look at the results table, you will see that there are far more downward moves than upward moves. This is simply because the groups of entrants on each point score were so big at the end of day 1 - e.g. all of the top 57 were in 1= at the end of day 1, whereas at the end of day 2, just 4 of the top 58 are in 1=, 15 more are in 5= and 39 are in 20=.

Not surprisingly, the biggest risers of the day were the remaining three entrants who equal top scored with 10/13 - scooter (JM), johnnylad (BT) & mojoworking (CC), all up 163 to 20=.

DODGY DROPPERS

The biggest faller on day 2 was world no. 2 Jose Javier/Buyaka86 (RF) - he fell 200 places to 201= after getting just 4/13 on day 2 to add to his perfect 3/3 on day 1 - quite a turnaround!

The other 4/13 scorers all dropped 157 places to 215= - Matthew (GR), -David-- (AM), jaysee (AM) & jepg (IN), but the lowest scorer of the day with just 3/13 was Mom of Twins (IN), who fell 39 places to last and is already 2 points adrift of the pack.

WINNER PICKS

I am just about certain that the highest winner pick percentage we have ever had for a BOTB pick em before was 83% for Rome 2007, in which case the 84% going for Rafa here is a record. The full list of winner picks is:

84% Rafa
10% Fed
2% Muzza, Verdasco
1% Nole
1 pick: Melzer, Sod

The only finalist picks who are not also in the above list are Cilic, Tsonga, Ferrero (oops!), Ferrer & Youzhny.

TUESDAY

The most crucial of the remaining R1 matches from a short-term BOTB point of view are (SE) de Bakker 61% v Troicki 39%, (WC) Bolelli 76% v (LL) Greul 24% and (9) Youzhny 77% v Hewitt 23% - the other five R1 matches all have one player picked by more than 80% of us. R2 starts on Tuesday too.