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

indiana · Tennis legend

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

LadyTigress · County player

Well, I backed Gulbis... and just as long as he can hold onto that decent streak of form he's been showing this year (a la beating Fed and such) then I'll be safe. The dubious part comes from my debating whether or not he's held onto that kind of form.

eblunt · Club Coach

LadyTigress wrote:

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.

The Quarter finalists seem to be a very general selection - Nalby, Berdbrain, A-Rod and Sodapop + top 4 seeds. Those all seem to be 70-98% picks - it's after that when I think the real gaps will appear. Unless it goes completely off the rails and someone has a set of inspired outsider picks comes through.

LadyTigress · County player

Speaking of muppets and Gulbis...

steven · Tennis legend

LadyTigress wrote:

Speaking of muppets and Gulbis...

Gulbis is 89% to R2, 86% to R3, 43% to R4 (with Ferrer 49%) so I hedged my bets a bit by going for him to reach R3 then go out to Pics (assuming Dolgo doesn't stop Pics getting there in the first place), so I guess a Gulbis loss here would be relatively neutral unless the 10% who picked Chardy to reach R3 are mainly in the top half of the table.

Of course, I knew that after he'd screwed my picks with his last run, Chardy would crash and burn in R1 if I picked him to do the same again ... and of course, being a GEM, if I had, he would have! furious

Baghdatis is far more important because I picked him to beat Fish in R3 in a 29%/71% match, clearly forgetting in my rush to get the entry in how rubbish Marcos tends to play in NY

YHe did seem to be recovering against GEMent, going 2 sets to 1 up, but is now a break down in the 4th.

-- Edited by steven on Tuesday 31st of August 2010 05:12:38 PM

LadyTigress · County player

Frankly I'm a little distracted tonight. It's my graduation tomorrow and I'm trying to prepare a million and one things. Don't know if I'm going to be able to follow the tennis much tonight - I've only glanced at proceedings so far really.

steven · Tennis legend

I'm 0/3 today, I wish I wasn't following it!

LadyTigress · County player

Meanwhile, only two games into Nole's match, the commentators are pointing out that he seems to be having trouble with his left leg. Oh JOY.

Smidster · Challenger level

And Baggy joins the GOAT club

LadyTigress · County player

Oh *insert colourful expletives here* .

JM1138 · Lower Club Player

Haha, I KNEW I could rely on you, Benoit Paire! Even if you did nearly give me an aneurysm by going from 2-0 up in sets to 5-2 down in the 5th, let's be friends. You've salvaged my awful pick'em day.

GEM what now?!

LadyTigress · County player

Baggy

Nieminen

Schuettler doh

Gulbis

Petzschner

Lopez

Cuevas

That about sums up the results for me so far. Badly need to get some more wins for my picks here.

wolf · Tennis legend

I expected Paire's talent to surprise Schuettler and for him to race to a two set lead. I then expected Schuettler experience and Paire's lack of five set experience to come through.

What I didn't expect was then Schuettler to choke when in complete control of the fifth set.

Still, even though it lost me a pick 'em point Paire winning should be a good result for the future of tennis - the GEM is quite a talent.

indiana · Tennis legend

C'est incredible

     Well, actually it's just becoming very silly.

What are the GEMs on ??

Rufin 14%   WINS
Matthieu 3%   WINS
Chardy 11%   WINS
Clement 2% WINS from a break down in the final set
Paire 17% WINS   from a break down in the final set

And I presume I am not alone in predicting zilch of these

I seem to remember someone once thinking of just picking all the GEMs for a laugh in a first round before or maybe just to get all the pain over early. Wow, if someone had done that...

LadyTigress · County player

indiana wrote:

And I presume I am not alone in predicting zilch of these

hmm Well, I only got Rufin out of those, but I don't consider Rufin a GEM... not sure why, perhaps because I think of GEMs as "the current crop of French players" and in my head Rufin, as a young up-and-coming French player of the next generation, has a chance to break the cycle and not become a GEM. *throws up hands* Argh, I don't know, maybe I thought that because he's young and on the rise his ranking belies his actual talent and capabilities and therefore he was worth a punt.

As for the other GEMs, maybe it's a superpower they have? You know like those robots that all combine into a massive super robot in superhero strips? The teaming up of GEM powers enables them ALL to improbably win against the odds.