Wimbledon 2010 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

The Knight · Challenger qualifying

RE: Wimbledon 2010 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

Silver · County player

Oh Roddick, you numpty. I was on course for 7/8 until you happened!

indiana · Tennis legend

I remember having a little think about who would win my Hewitt vs Roddick quarter final. That's wasted time never to be recovered

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:

I remember having a little think about who would win my Hewitt vs Roddick quarter final. That's wasted time never to be recovered

That's an early contender for quote of the week (no doubt I'm biased because I was thinking it too!)

Josh · Challenger level

The order has got a little messed up in the table. The correct positions are given but they aren't in chronolgical order.

eblunt · Club Coach

Steven - I've just realised the real reason behind the LTA's wild card policy this Wimbledon : They wanted Womble to do well in the pickem !

With only Jamie as a wild card, Womble's insane picks were kept to a minimum, and by fiddling the draw to get him in the same quarter as Andy, they reduced the damage even further. Obviously Verdasco going out was a bonus sice it meant almost everyone else got it wrong from round 3 onwards as sell. With all 4 of his semi final picks still standing, I bet they're rubbing their hands at the prospect of a top half finish for Womble now.

steven · Tennis legend

Thanks Josh - sorted last night.

eblunt wrote:

Steven - I've just realised the real reason behind the LTA's wild card policy this Wimbledon : They wanted Womble to do well in the pickem !

With only Jamie as a wild card, Womble's insane picks were kept to a minimum, and by fiddling the draw to get him in the same quarter as Andy, they reduced the damage even further. Obviously Verdasco going out was a bonus sice it meant almost everyone else got it wrong from round 3 onwards as sell. With all 4 of his semi final picks still standing, I bet they're rubbing their hands at the prospect of a top half finish for Womble now.

Their sneakiness can't get past us, can it wink

- I seem to remember Bethan making a very similar comment when she did Womble's picks.

When Roger Draper comes out and says "Ah, but we have achieved one measure of success, Womble was the most successful home bot in any of the slams,"you'll know you were spot on biggrin

steven · Tennis legend

2010 WIMBLEDON BOTB - DAY 7 better late than never 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

The whole of R4 was played on Monday and it's fair to say that the hopes of the 68% of us who picked Roddick to reach the semis or beyond (including 15% who picked him to reach the Final, just over half of whom picked him to win the Final when he got there) disappeared down the Lu when Duckboy (picked to win R4 by 86% of us) quacked at the end of the 5th set. Only legorik27 (IN) saw that one coming!

Fed 99%, Rafa 94% & Muzza 89% all got through in 3 sets, with another heavily backed player, Söderling 89%, scraping through in 5. Berdbrain was picked by a smaller majority (64%) but those who didn't pick him had all started the day outside the top 30.

The biggest swing match of the day, Hewitt 54% v Nole 44%, was won by the higher-ranked but marginally less fancied player, and together with Duckboy going out, the 10% who picked Nole to reach the semis against recent evidence must be feeling pretty smug right now! Tsonga 41% was another winner you had to have in order to have a good day - though most of the damage there was done by Verdasco (picked by 50% of us) having muppeted out in R1.

Detailed results, lists of everyone's picks and so on can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/Competitions.html and these are being updated regularly each day.

TEAMS

TAT lead by just over 2 points from MTL, who got the highest raw average score for the third round in a row - the adjustment to the total score that takes account of the fact that smaller teams are more likely to have extreme high or low scores is keeping the world no. 1s on top at the moment. World no. 2s BT.net are a further 2 points behind, with MTF following in 4th.

The teams in mid-table are much closer together and they include the two biggest risers of the day, Tennisopolis, up 3 to 5th, and the Dammitaires, up 4 to 7th. Going the other way, 5 teams were the equal biggest fallers of the day (down 2), and they include the Ducklings, down 2 to 14th, who have all picked Duckboy to win the title and hence are likely to be caught by last-placed NewBallsPlease by the end of the tournament.

INDIVIDUALS

Over 30 entrants equal top-scored in R4 with 7/8 correct. They include the new leader JTContinental (TA), up 2 to 1st, who is 4 points ahead of Imoen (BT), up 13 to 2nd, who also got 7/8 and is just ahead (on tiebreak) of Gillyflower (GR), up 1 to 3rd after getting 6/8, and another 7/8 scorer Drop-shot (TA), up 14 to 4th.

Three more entrants who scored 7/8 on day 7 plus Billy the Bookie have moved up into the top 10 - jesswrig (TA), up 16 to 5th, The Mayor of Tennisopolis (TN), up 16 to 7th, and Hindu2184 (IN), up 27 to 8th, and three more who scored 6/8 have fallen a bit but have hung on in there - Raven (AM), down 1 to 6th, and cazza99 (AM) & Smidster (BT), both down 2 to 9th.

It was a very bad day for the recent leaders, with Steven (GR) falling another 32 to 38th (just behind early leader British_is_Best (BT) in 37th) after getting 5/8 in R4 and Puschkin (RG) falling 46 to 47th after getting just half of the quarter-finalists correct.

ON THE RISE

Of the entrants who got 7/8 on Monday, a dozen climbed more than 100 places - GVGirl (TA), up 101 to 60th, sadey (GR), Randall Six (IN) & count zero (BT), all up 117 to 92=, match22 (RF), up 131 to 95th, riser of the day Crispy (IN), up 144 to 104th, Gigi (AM), up 143 to 108th, Josh (BT), up 139 to 115th, Ribbons (NB), up 139 to 139th, and Oscar (RF), up 115 to 269th.

DODGY DROPPERS

All four entrants who got 2/8 or less were already in the bottom quartile, so the fallers of the day (all plummeting more than 150 places) were four of those who got 3/8 - cfn33 (BT), down 172 to 217th, jett (AR), down 198 to 254th, Alice (NB), down 189 to 277th, and Gavbo (DF), down 166 to 327th.

OUTLOOK

Over 30 entrants have all four of their semi-finalists still standing (mostly the top 4 seeds) and well over half of us have at least three (generally the top 4 seeds apart from Nole) so there are plenty of points still up for grabs.

Only the lanterne rouge has nobody left, but 5 more have just one, including JM1138 (BT), who was in the top 50 before R4 started and is still in the top half in 164th place.

TEAM KO

The SF results were:

(8) MyTennisLounge.com 23.00 beat (13) BBC 606 boards 19.43
(14) AndyMurray.com 20.53 beat (15) AndyRoddick.com 19.00

The line-ups for all the finals, which will be decided by the results in the last three rounds of Wimbledon, are:

FINAL: (8) MyTennisLounge.com are tied with (14) AndyMurray.com 0-0
3-4: (13) BBC 606 boards are tied with (15) AndyRoddick.com 0-0
5-6: (16) RogerFederer.com are tied with (7) Centre Court Forum 0-0
7-8: (12) The Daily Forehand are tied with (6) GBTennisGirls.com 0-0
9-10: (5) RichardGasquet.net are tied with (11) Tennisopolis.com 0-0
11-12: (1) BritishTennis.net are tied with (10) JamieMurray.org 0-0
13-14: (4) Rusedski.co.uk are tied with (2) TalkAboutTennis 0-0
15-16: (9) NewBallsPlease are tied with (3) MensTennisForums 0-0

For the full 5th-16th playoff SF results, please see the detailed results pages at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/Competitions.html

WEDNESDAY'S OoP DETAILS & PICK %s

CC - 1 QF Roger Federer (SUI) [1] 95% v Tomas Berdych (CZE) [12] 4% (Kolya 1%)
CC - 2 QF Andy Murray (GBR) [4] 83% v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [10] 4% (Querrey 8%, Verdasco 5%)
C1 - 1 QF Novak Djokovic (SRB) [3] 10% v Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) 0% (Duckboy 68%, Hewitt 16%, Cilic 4%, others 2%)
C1 - 2 QF Rafael Nadal (ESP) [2] 80% v Robin Söderling (SWE) [6] 18% (Isner 2%)

This makes Rafa v Söd the swing match of the day, though 90% of us could do with Lu extending his giant-killing run to provide some damage limitation.

eblunt · Club Coach

Cmon Djoko - Set and a break up now biggrin

Thats an effective 4.5 point net gain for me if he does the business.

Wouldn't particularly mind seeing Fed go out either to be honest, good bit of future damage limitation insurance.

-- Edited by eblunt on Wednesday 30th of June 2010 02:29:46 PM

eblunt · Club Coach

Berdbrain 2 sets to one up, and a break up in the 4th. I sense a gigantic choke coming .....

Count Zero · Tennis legend

Hmm Come on Fed! Berdcyh is not becoming a Fav 1st he beats Boggo last year and now he trys to ruin my pick-em!

eblunt · Club Coach

Count Zero wrote:

Hmm Come on Fed! Berdcyh is not becoming a Fav 1st he beats Boggo last year and now he trys to ruin my pick-em!

Consider it ruined. But with rafa struggling as well, this could open things up for someone with a Sodapop winning selection. Berdbrain, Djoko, Sodapop and Tsonga winning the quarters would wreck a fair few pickems I reckon !

indiana · Tennis legend

And Soderling wins first set vs Nadal 6 - 3

Well, I thought a semi selection of Fed, Roddick, Muzza and Nadal made good sense at the time, as at least clearly did many other folk.

Well, at least I suppose I was already pretty runied pick'em wise before today.

I think I was possibly a Hanescu melt-down away from joint-top on points at one stage and then it all started to go wrong......

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah, the bottom half at least came good.

Now Mr Murray, please finish off my pick'em. I want no more points. I know I picked Rafa for the final and I'm sorry about that but you must admit you were playing pretty **** so it was an understandable choice.

Anyway, you just go win and win again

steven · Tennis legend

2010 WIMBLEDON BOTB - DAY 9 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Lots of us correctly predicted that three of the top four seeds would reach the semis, but the player most of us thought would get through (Fed 95%) was upset by 4% pick Berdych (it seems a bit unfair to continue calling him Berdbrain after that!) and 10% pick Nole (whom most of us thought would lose to Duckboy or would have already lost to Hewitt) completed a top half SF line-up that only two entrants predicted.

Normal service was resumed in the bottom half of the draw, with 83% pick Muzza and 80% pick Rafa making it through.

Detailed results, lists of everyone's picks and so on can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/Competitions.html.

TEAMS

After getting the 3rd highest score in the QFs, world no. 1s TAT now appear to have an unassailable lead of over 3 points, so well done to them on a commanding performance in this event.

It was a good day for the main GB-based teams yesterday, with world no. 2s BT.net climbing 1 to 2nd ahead of MTL, JM.org winning the round and shooting up 7 to 5th, and AM.com moving up 1 to 6th.

The only other team to move up was, surprisingly, the Feddies, up 2 to 13th. I think this must be due to a combination of only 5% of all entrants picking against Fed to reach the semis (so his loss will only really bite them in the remaining rounds), a remarkably high 90% of team RF having gone for Muzza to reach the semis and them having started the round only just behind the Ducklings, who all went for Duckboy and only half of whom had a Muzza v Rafa semi, and the Daily Forehand, less than half of whom picked Muzza to reach the semis.

The only teams that fell more than one place were Team CC, down 3 to 8th, and GBTG, down 2 to 12th.

Outlook - As far as I can tell, the top three will remain the same now unless Rafa reaches the Final, in which case MTL will regain 2nd place, or Muzza wins the title, in which case AM.com will finish 2nd and BT.net will drop out of the top three.

INDIVIDUALS

We have a new top two after jesswrig, up 4 to 1st, and motobass (TA), up 15 to 2nd, both got 3/4 semi-finalists correct. Imoen (BT), Gillyflower (GR) & Drop-shot (TA) all got 2/4 and have fallen 1 place to 3rd, 4th & 5th respectively, but overnight leader JTContinental (TA) got just 1/4 and falls 7 to 8th.

Early leader British_is_Best (BT) has surged back up 31 to 6th after getting 3/4 correct. With 93 correct picks, he has now got more individual picks correct than anyone else. 2/4 resulted in small falls for Raven (AM), down 1 to 7th, and The Mayor of Tennisopolis (TN), down 2 to 9th. The star of the day though was kayce (JM), up 87 to 10th after being the only one of us to get all 4 semi-finalists correct!

OUTLOOK (E&OE)

As far as I can tell, there will be a female winner of Wimbledon BOTB whatever happens, but which one of four possible winners will it be?

If Muzza reaches the Final, the top three at that stage will be Imoen (BT) 1st, British_is_Best (BT) 2nd and Raven (AM) 3rd, and if he then wins the Final, Raven (AM) will move up into the top slot - she is the only entrant in the current top 60 who has picked Andy to win the title.

If we end up with a Berdych v Nadal Final, jesswrig & motobass (TA) will hang onto the top two places but Gillyflower (GR) will edge up to 3rd, whoever wins the title - though Rafa going on to win the title will increase their ranking point haul.

If it turns out to be Rafa v Nole, kayce (JM), the only entrant in the top 70 who has both finalists still standing, will win the title with the current top two both dropping back a place.

In fact, just 7 other entrants still have both finalists left in and any of them could shoot up the table if their remaining predictions come true. They are Ivanatis (MT) with RN beats TB in 74th, bandtree (MT) with RN beats ND in 143rd, eddie (AM) with AM beats ND & morct (TA) with RN beats ND in 153=, Ifaslin (NB) with RN beats TB in 183=, gottygear18 (IN) with ND beats AM in 280th, ghandi (GR) with RN beats TB in 359th, and pabbers (AM) with AM beats TB in 397th.

ON THE RISE

Despite being the only entrant to get 4/4 correct, kayce (JM)'s 87-place rise was not the biggest of the day because there were three-figure rises for Swissgirl (IN), Ifaslin (NB), both up 100 to 183rd, Andrew (GB), up 100 to 186th, Scooter (JM), up 101 to 204th, KingTiger (IN), up 101 to 206th, and riser of the day emf123 (IN), up 102 to 207th.

Womble (the bot who goes with rankings but favours British players) also moved up into the top half of the table, giving credence to the scurrilous suggestion on BT.net that the real reason the LTA recommended so few WCs for GB men was to ensure that they would be able to claim their policies had resulted in the best ever performance from a home bot in a slam BOTB. LOL

DODGY DROPPERS

The biggest fallers are among the 17 entrants who failed to get a single semi-finalist correct, with faller of the day jbs10is (NB), down 156 to 281st, BillBaker (TN), down 147 to 289th, jadesa (TA), down 142 to 297th, and jules (IN), down 122 to 342nd, all plummeting over 100 places.

TEAM KO FINALS

FINAL: (14) AndyMurray.com lead (8) MyTennisLounge.com 9.75-6.88 - I don't think AM.com can now be caught, so well done to them!

3-4: (13) BBC 606 boards lead (15) AndyRoddick.com 10-7.5
5-6: (7) Centre Court Forum lead (16) RogerFederer.com 8.6-7.25
7-8: (6) GBTennisGirls.com lead (12) The Daily Forehand 9-6.43
9-10: (11) Tennisopolis.com lead (5) RichardGasquet.net 8.21-7.69
11-12: (10) JamieMurray.org lead (1) BritishTennis.net 11.07-9.55
13-14: (4) Rusedski.co.uk lead (2) TalkAboutTennis 10-8.96
15-16: (3) MensTennisForums lead (9) NewBallsPlease 9.06-7.08

FRIDAY'S PICK %s

(3) Nole 2% v (12) Berdych 1%
(2) Rafa 60% v (4) Muzza 28%

The first semi will determine whether there are any really big moves and will help to determine the final top three, but it is the second semi that will have the most effect on the positions and ranking points for most of us, though there are plenty of us among the 60% picking Rafa to beat Muzza who would be more than happy to get that one wrong!