Roland Garros 2010 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

imoen · Admin: Moderator+Tennis Legend

RE: Roland Garros 2010 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

steven · Tennis legend

It's looking even better for you jammy dodgers now - 1st in the teams league, 1-2-3= in the individual and Bethan in 6= too. smile

Since I'm up over 170 places too, I'm not complaining biggrin

- many thanks to LT for getting Dolgo into the consciousness here, he did very well to scrape through today.

It almost makes up for the AMMB-induced folly of picking Devvvarman to win his R1 match, though that's really my fault for reacting to the hyping on here a little while back, i.e. trusting the crystal ball skills of someone who used to tout Dan Cox as the next big thing in British tennis ... wink

-- Edited by steven on Monday 24th of May 2010 06:55:50 PM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

PaulM · Tennis legend

aargh Berrer you goon!

Silver · County player

Just so I know that this moment was real.

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

just in case no one knows my old AM alias, i am oneminutetomidknight....AND THANKYOU SILVER FOR DOCUMENTING THIS GLORIOUS MOMENT!

also can i just say though sorry im about to bring us back down to earth with a bang:

i picked Boredo to make the semis...and he's gone already!

Harper · Junior player

Down 51.

I wonder were I went wrong!

Scratchy · Club Coach

Well done Josh, Silver & The Knight!!!!

steven · Tennis legend

Silver wrote:

Just so I know that this moment was real.

Brilliant biggrin

steven · Tennis legend

2010 ROLAND GARROS BOTB - DAY 2 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

The biggest shock on day 2 was 1% pick Reister taking out F-Loppy in straight sets, though with 90% picking the Flopster to win R2 and only 1% to beat Fed in R3, that may not end up having a huge effect, though either the 8% who picked Rochus to beat him in R2 or BeauJarkko (TA), who picked Reister to reach R3, will end up happy!

8% pick Carsten Ball upset Petzschner 9-7 in the 5th, meaning one entrant lost their pick to win the title, and 10% pick Troicki beat an out of sort Robredo, which will be particularly bad for the 47% who had him reaching R4 (of whom 18% had him reaching the QFs and 9% the semis), unless there are further shocks in that section to limit the damage.

In the last R1 match to finish in the top half of the draw, 78% pick Muzza recovered from 2 sets down for the 4th time in his career (the 2nd time against Dammit) to win what most of us saw as the big match of the day and 35% pick Nishikori did the same against Giraldo. Another 35% pick, Dolgopolov, beat Clément in 5 sets and 27% picks Dent & Andujar upset Lapentti & Bolelli respectively.

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,' the odd rant (when I just can't stop myself!) and the odd 'quote of the day' appearing on http://twitter.com/botb1 as well.

TEAMS

World no. 2 team BT.net made a slow start to the day, but it got better and better for them and they finished the day up 2 in 1st with individual entrants in 1st, 2nd & 3=. JM.org did well out of 'little brother's' win and rose 4 to 2nd, while MTF also did well, climbing 5 to 3rd.

The rest of the top 4 teams in the overall rankings are bunched just behind the top 3 - TAT WR 3 stayed in 4th, Rusedski.co.uk WR 5 rose 2 to 5th and the Feddies WR 1 fell 4 places to 6th.

The biggest moves reflected the result of the 'match of the day' - AM.com climbed 7 to 7th and the Dammitaires slipped back 8 to 9th and could do with Muzza not going much further.

GBTG moved off the bottom for a while but ended the day back where they started.

INDIVIDUALS

With 24/29 correct on day 2, Josh (BT) finished the day up 2 in 1= after leading for most of the day. At the end of the day, he was joined by team-mate Silver (BT), up 10 to 1=, who was the outright top scorer of the day with 25/29.

oneminutetomidknight (BT) & Suliso (TA) share 3rd place after getting 24/29 and moving up 8, while four entrants share 5th place - USO 2007 winner and another 24/29 scorer amalyn (MT), up 44, together with Björki (MT) & NoHeroine (ML) & Kayce (JM), all up 6, the latter having shared the lead fleetingly after Ball's upset win.

There are then 14 entrants sharing 9th place - 24/29 scorer janeInScotland (JM), up 132, Jean-Marc (BT), Imoen (BT), Snoo Foo (MT), richard meaghan (TN), Duchess (CC) & Raven (AM), all up 40, emf123 (IN), emf123 (IN), wycombe7 (TA), Reeltime (AM), waylandboy-tw (TA) & BeauJarkko (TA), all up 2 to 9 (the latter having shared the lead after Reister's win and then again after Troicki's win), and Oscar (RF), down 6.

ON THE RISE

Three entrants shot up over 200 places - the last of the 24/29 scorers, Rondun (JM), up 211 to 22=, and the two fastest risers of the day, AO 2008 winner Richard Morris/ASE (AM) and AO 2009 'lanterne rouge' jaydu (AM), both up 233 to 84= after being the only entrants who started the day outside the top 300 who managed to score 23/29.

DODGY DROPPERS

The lowest scorer of the day was Petzschner's Left Thumb (IN), down 114 to 347th (i.e. last) - the only person who failed to score more than 50% on the day, he has lost his winner pick too and is the only entrant still tied up with the gorillas.

The biggest fallers, though, were the two entrants who scored 15/29 - sengale (RG), down a painful 263 from 3= to 266=, and Elanor (RF), down 276 to 325=.

Lots of other entrants fell more than 200 places, but the only others who fell more than 250 were 16/29 scorers Yorkie (AM), down 255 to 266th, and Ryzim (DF), squirt squirt (TN) & Adrien (RG), all down 258 to 307=.

TUESDAY

From a short-term point of view, the three big swing matches on day 3 are all in the Duckboy Roddick/Pics Ferrer section of the draw - 'bash 52% v mad Dani 48%, Mahut 52% v Zverev 48% and Malisse 54% v Greul 46%, though none of those 6 players has been picked to reach R3 by more than 5% of us. Get all of those right and (all other things being equal) you will have gained ground on nearly 90% of the other entrants, get all three wrong and you'll have lost ground on nearly 90%.

The seedings and hence pairings for the team KO should get decided today, assuming R1 finishes without a hitch.

LadyTigress · County player

steven wrote:

Since I'm up over 170 places too, I'm not complaining - many thanks to LT for getting Dolgo into the consciousness here, he did very well to scrape through today.

biggrin I'm up over 170 places too - YAY! Was that all down to Olek? It was good for the team too - glancing at other teams, the majority of people in the team picked Clement, however on BT.net only 17 out of 37 of us picked Clement.

I plant seeds, I raise profiles... I dunno... You start by following a narrow section of the Challenger Tour, other names soon start floating onto your radar here and there, particularly if that name starts getting repeated over and over in finals and as eventual champion. I happened to notice Olek last year - and it quickly became apparent from the way he was winning multiple Challenger titles that he'd break the top 100 soon and onto the World Tour this year. I definitely think he's headed upwards... really not sure where he'll end this year - I think in the top 50 but possibly no higher than 25.

Incidentally I was just looking at Olek's atp profile now to check out his rankings breakdown, and it seems the name he goes by has changed - it's now listed as "Alexandr Dolgopolov" as opposed to "Oleksandr Dolgopolov Junior" - presumably by slightly changing the spelling he's cut down on the length of his name by eliminating the need for the "Junior" element.

steven · Tennis legend

No doubt thanks to the Shedman, whose rash 'bet' ensured that many BT.netters will never pick against Gabashvili in a winnable R1 match, 62% have picked him to beat mad Dani c.f. 52% of entrants overall ... and he's 2 sets and a break up

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 25th of May 2010 10:43:56 AM

johnnylad · Tennis legend

I remembered him from Davis Cup when they touted him for big things.

Cannot believe Carsten Ball and Taylor Dent won though. Did thay play on the special "glass" court erected round the back?

SMC1809 · All-time great

Silver, you're outright leader. Take a screen print, buy a frame, and get down to B&Q for your picture hanging kit.

eblunt · Club Coach

My flounce might have been slightly premature, it's suddenly going better today. If you get the online scoreboard up + the 'All Picks' screen for yourself you can 'will' the correct players to win I've discovered. Now that I'm monitoring every point , my picks are pretty much winning or level across the board (I needed to win the 4th set breaker for duckman mind you).

The only player immune to web asisstance seems to be Eduardo Sch ....... you know who, but he always seems to live up to his name for me. At least he's mucking up for everyone else though.