2010 US Open 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

steven · Tennis legend

2010 US Open 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest

steven · Tennis legend

Entries are now open - just over 93 hours to go, good luck!

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Entrered.

Off on me hols in 9 hours so no time to wait for qualifiers.

Come on Andy

steven · Tennis legend

The entry form with qualifiers placed is now available at http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/Competitions.html

Just over 37 hours left to enter ... good luck

LadyTigress · County player

Gah, another torturous Pick'em! Why do we keep coming back for more?!

I'm beginning to have that Day 1 sense of "what on earth was I thinking when I Picked?" Steven and I had a discussion over the weekend about the fact that Sashko had been drawn against Ferrer and he asked me what I thought about the match up (out of curiosity! I confidently presume that steven had already made his Picks!). That was a real tough one for me to choose. If I wanted to Pick safely, I'd say go for Ferrer, but... I decided to go for another punt on Sashko (my risky Picks of him in the last few Pick'em tourneys have paid off very well for me). The tough thing is that Ferrer's a real tough cookie to draw in the first round... if he can just get past him then he has better prospects for the following rounds. I just really wasn't sure. Sashko's been competitive against the top guys, but has yet to pull off a big win - I think he will, one day, but have no idea if that's at this tourney. So I went for the risky option and had him getting to Round 3. And am now beginning to wonder if that was such a good idea after all. Gah. IT's that darned first round match against Ferrer that's the big hurdle... just got to overcome that...

I think I had maybe a couple more other risky Picks in there, but did damage limitation with them - i.e. didn't think they'd go another round after that. Otherwise I Picked fairly sanely. The trouble is that the tourney doesn't always unfold in what would seem to be the most sensible and expected manner.

Anyone else make some risky picks?

JM1138 · Lower Club Player

Pretty sure I have de Bakker for R4, Smyczek for R3 and Nalby for the semis. Not quite sure about the chances of any of those coming off...

And I always look closely at Dolgopolov's draws these days, after LT's series of great picks for him to do well! I suspect Ferrer will have too much for him this time out, though.

LadyTigress · County player

Yeah, very tough draw for him this time. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for a Pick'em pay off though. As I said, I think he'll get a win over a top player in the next 12 months... IO just have no idea when he's gonna make that breakthrough. He's certainly been giving Rafa, Tsonga and Berdych competitive and challenging matches despite eventually losing to them, over the past few tourneys, which suggests to me that he is on the way up and gaining the experience to pull off a breakthrough win sometime soon. I doubt that it's this tourney... but it could be. And of course how Ferrer plays on the day will be a factor. In Pick'em terms, Ferrer has a horrible habit of being a PEM when I least expect him to be.

Er, I'm pretty sure I didn't make those picks for de Bakker, Smyczek and Nalby though. Who did you have them overcoming to get that far?

JM1138 · Lower Club Player

Well he definitely has a decent chance. Could have gone far here with a kinder draw, that's for sure. Still could, I suppose.

And I may have actually had de Bakker for R3, beating Gonzo in the second round. Looks like he's through R128 at least. And Smyczek I think has a great chance of beating Bellucci, and I'd definitely back him against either Anderson or Devvarman. Although Nalbandian beating Verdy and Rafa...might have been a bit optimistic there!

Ah, the masochistic joy of BOTB.

LadyTigress · County player

JM1138 wrote:

Ah, the masochistic joy of BOTB.

biggrin Indeed. On top of that, I've found myself in the position this year of worrying about defending my ranking points! Oh the pressure of breaking inside the WR 100!

steven · Tennis legend

LOL of course I hadn't make my picks when I pm'd to ask if you were going to go for Dolgo again ... but I was never going to pick him anyway, I don't pick against favourites who are as heavy favs as that early in a tournament, too much chance of an early wipeout, especially if the winner is likely to go a round or two further.

Anyway, all of the results pages are now up @ http://www.freewebs.com/britishtennis/Competitions.html

After finishing his first tournament as world no. 1 in the bottom 10 and hanging on by the skin of his teeth, Scotsguy (ML) has started his second tournament as world no. 1 by taking an early outright lead on 16/17.

Very high scoring so far - there are 13 more entrants on 15 and just under half of us have 13 or more. Which is very bad news if you have 12 or less of course ...

374 entrants btw, just 2 less than last year - an increase in the number of regulars entering, which is definitely a good thing, balanced by a decrease in the number of newbies, which is not surprising given the crazy number of other USO competitions on offer this year.

indiana · Tennis legend

LadyTigress wrote:

The trouble is that the tourney doesn't always unfold in what would seem to be the most sensible and expected manner.

Yep, and that's the fun* of it all ! biggrin

* at times folk may wish to replace this word

steven · Tennis legend

2010 US OPEN BOTB - DAY 1 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

An increase in the number of entries from those in the top 250 of the overall BOTB rankings c.f. last year's USO to 216 (the 2nd highest number of entries ever from this group after the 218 at Wimbledon) and a drop in the number of newbies entering for the first time more or less cancelled each other out and we ended up with 374 entrants, c.f. 376 last year.

We also equalled the all-time record number of full teams (i.e. 5+ entrants) with 17 (the same as in the 2010 AO pick 'em), which means that the lowest-placed team will fail to qualify for the teams KO competition this time.

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

BIGGEST SHOCKS SO FAR (80:20 or more extreme)

- (Q) Dodig 5% beat (27) Gonzo 95% when the Chilean retired hurt
- PHM 3% beat (32) Hewitt 97% despite choking away breaks in both the 3rd and 4th sets
- (W) Rufin 14% beat L Mayer 86%

The Gonzo loss is probably more crucial, given that the 53% who picked him to win R2 as well will be hoping Dodig 1% stops de Bakker 46% winning the R2 match! The other unexpected winners play each other as 3% v 0% picks, as Fed's allegedly easy quarter becomes even easier!

BIGGEST SWING MATCHES SO FAR (65:35 or closer)

- (Q) Nishikori 53% beat Korolev 47%
- (Q) Berankis 43% beat (W) Sweeting 57%
- (W) Ball 56% beat (Q) Raonic 44%
- Beck 40% beat Berrer 60%
- Mello 37% beat Phau 63%

TEAMS

A high-scoring day has produced a tight teams league, with all 17 teams covered by just 1.23 points!

World no. 3s MTF lead by 0.06 from two small teams, T4Y & TennisWarehouse, who share 2nd place. There is then another 0.06 gap back to AM.com in 4th and another back to GBTG in 5th.

Rusedski.co.uk were last for much of the day, but in the end they moved up to 15th, leaving NewBallsPlease to stay out of last place by the skin of their teeth - the 9 NBPs got 138 correct picks between them, while the 9 Ducklings got just 137.

INDIVIDUALS

World no. 1 Scotsguy (ML) finished in the bottom 20 at Toronto (and only just held onto the top position in the overall rankings as a result), but seems to be right back in form here, taking the outright lead in the middle of the day, holding onto it until the end and finishing the day with an impressive 21/24!

The number of entrants in 2= varied widely, eventually settling at 23 - they include top 100 players Hen (MT) WR 5, who has finished on the podium in two Masters pick 'ems, dewster99 (AM), Fiercehart (TA), Omegadoom (TA), --cj-- (TA) and Kamui010 (MT), not to mention serial gorilla-botherer SallyDaisy (JM), who seems to be neglecting her furry friends at this stage.

Every entrant is currently on more than 50%, but Zebra Melanija (IN), Dusty Dick (BT) & Suze Clark are only one point ahead of the gorillas in equal last place.

WINNER PICKS

A late surge for Fed-to-win predictions left the ultimate winner pick %s as follows:

42% Fed
39% Muzza
12% Rafa
3% Duckboy
2% Nole
1% Numpty, Hewitt
0.5% Dammit, Söderling

In addition, Berdbrain, Kolya, Gulbis, Fish, Baghdatis, Ferrer, Stakhovsky & Chela have all been picked to reach the Final by at least one person.

LadyTigress · County player

Don't worry steven, I'm well aware that I may have made a tactical error - but it was a calculated one. I chose to take the risk in hopes of the pay off. I fully acknowledge that Ferrer is the sensible, safe pick there.

YES!!!

*thumps Rufin heartily on the back* Good work! And Berankis too, I backed him against Sweeting.

The List of Shame evileye

Gonzo

Hewitt

steven · Tennis legend

LadyTigress wrote:

Don't worry steven, I'm well aware that I may have made a tactical error - but it was a calculated one. I chose to take the risk in hopes of the pay off. I fully acknowledge that Ferrer is the sensible, safe pick there.

YES!!! *thumps Rufin heartily on the back* Good work! And Berankis too, I backed him against Sweeting.

The List of Shame
Gonzo
Hewitt

I don't think it's a bad idea to take a risk like picking Dolgo to beat Pics if you've got a good reason to think it might come off (and you've clearly been following Dolgo closely enough to have a decent reason!), but it's a lot harder to get the motivation to write reports, etc, each day if your pick 'em is completely screwed from an early stage, so that's why I tend to play it 'safe'. Not that it'll look that safe if Dolgo wins! lol

LadyTigress · County player

Playing it safe was just getting tired for me, in Pick'ems. And it was only getting me so far. I recognised that I need to take some risks to improve my results. And my points defence this year has given me sufficient motivation to do so.

Of course, in reality, your Picks always manage to muppet it up for you, whether you pick safely or not, there's always some unexpected results messing it all up.