Shanghai Masters 2010 Pickem Competition

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Shanghai Masters 2010 Pickem Competition

indiana · Tennis legend

Hmm, we shall see. To be fair to me ( always a not unreasonable thing to do ) some of what you said did influence me, and watching him live at the O2 final last year. Kolya to come good in the late season indoors was the basic thinking, plus a bit of what's Rafa doing playing 3 weeks in a row

Still rather confused by that match that was supposedly suspended due to rain !

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 11th of October 2010 04:00:43 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Going well with my qualifiers

Zverev and Chardy win ( picked to lose ) and Serra loses ( picked to win ), so I guess Kubot and Becker will win and Anderson and Ilhan lose.

To be fair to me ( again ) since the qualifiers hadn't been placed it's really their numpty oppnents to be blamed !

LadyTigress · County player

But Rafa's coming into this in completely different circumstances than he did last year. Last year there were obviously the injury issues and he really took a blow... struggling to come back... tired at the end of the season. This year has been all about stamping his authority on the game, showing that his dominance in 2008 wasn't just a one-off. Of course he's just completed the career slam as well - his confidence is soaring high right now. On that basis, I picked Rafa to win the entire tournament here. Djokovic is my other finalist - he has shown that he can be competitive this year, but he is not riding on the same wave of confidence that Rafa is.

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:

Hmm, we shall see. To be fair to me ( always a not unreasonable thing to do ) some of what you said did influence me, and watching him live at the O2 final last year. Kolya to come good in the late season indoors was the basic thinking, plus a bit of what's Rafa doing playing 3 weeks in a row

Still rather confused by that match that was supposedly suspended due to rain !

I kept thinking about indoor form too (harking back to the time when Madrid and Paris were both played indoors) but Shanghai is (notionally) an outdoor event, which is a bit of a blow! ashamed

-- Edited by steven on Monday 11th of October 2010 05:24:33 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Ah ha, I've been deceived. But if I can just retrospectively change a few selections, it'll be fine

clayfan · Lower Club Player

Indiana, the Shanghai complex is outdoor hard courts. The 15,000 seater Qizhong Stadium can have its roof closed for indoor events, such as the Masters Cup. For this larger event it is usually open except if it rains. So expect rain delays!

steven · Tennis legend

2010 SHANGHAI MASTERS BOTB - DAYS 1 & 2 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Many thanks to all those who entered this competition - 220 entrants is slightly lower than the originally reported number after duplicate entries came to light but still over 13% up on last year, and this is only the second time we have had 14 teams of 5 or more entrants for a Masters - the first was Rome 2010.

Two matches were played on Sunday evening as scheduled and eight more on Monday, where play on the outside courts was very limited due to rain.

What a muppet show it was in the top half of the draw too - on Sunday, Almagro lost to 27% pick Dolgo and on Monday it got worse, with Verdy losing to 10% pick de Bakker, Stakh losing to 13% pick Zverev and Baggy losing to 2% pick Chardy, though the pick %s for the last two may have been a bit higher had qualifier placements been known before the main draw started.

In the swing match of the day, 60% pick Stani beat Simon, whose recent good form had sucked 39% of us into forgetting he was a GEM, while one entrant was apparently unable to make their mind up at all and did not make a pick for that match.

Bad news re w/ds too (though perhaps not for the 20% who went for Golubev to win R1 and the 58% who went for Melzer to win R2!) - Mardy Fish failed to recover from last week's ankle injury in time and has been replaced by (LL) Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

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

A late surge by Rusedski.co.uk on day 2 means that they lead after 10 matches from Team CC (who also held the lead at one point) and one of the two new teams, Bangor Uni Tennis Club, henceforth known as the Bangors. BT.net and the other new team from the ATP Draw Challenge Circuit forum, the ATP DCCs (unless anyone can come up with a better short form for that one) complete the top 5.

At the end of day 1, JM.org had been in the lead with AM.com last, but the former dropped 7 to 8th on Monday and the latter moved up 2 to 12th, leaving world no. 1s TAT propping up the table at the end of day 2 - they started the last Masters BOTB (Toronto) doing that too!

INDIVIDUALS

After day 1's two matches, there were still plenty of entrants on 100%, but they gradually got whittled down until just world no. 10 Imoen (BT) remained on 7/7 as the first outright leader.

However, she then went 0/3 for the remaining matches and when day 2 ended, world no. 227 WallaceEMann (GR) was the outright leader on 9/10 - a very impressive performance given that the average is only just over 50% at 5.15!

JGS (IN), ml7000 (IN), Busy Lizzie (ML) & newbie Agi (DC) are all just one point behind, with 15 more entrants 2 points behind and new world no. 1 eblunt (BT) leading last pack (of 65) who are still above average.

The remaining 135 of us are either at the door of the gorillas' cage or among the 62 who are firmly in the cage, so it's all a bit embarrassing at the moment, though of course most of us will (with some justification, it has to be said!) be blaming the players rather than ourselves!

Four entrants are languishing at the bottom of the table with just 2/10 so far - anne (IN), buddyholly (MT), Raven (AM) and the unfortunate Xknowledge (RF), who has already lost his runner-up (Almagro) and two more quarter-finalists, F-Loppy and Montanes!

WINNER PICKS

BOTBers put much more faith in Rafa (and much less in Fed, even with the effect of the RF.com block vote!) than those taking part in the ATP DCC, and one MTFer put a lot of faith in an up and coming Ukrainian ...

43% Rafa
25% Fed
20% Nole
8% Muzza
1% each for Söd, Berdbrain & Dammit
1 pick each for Dolgopolov, Tsonga, Querrey & Duckboy

Finalist picks not listed above: DGT (was Fish before his w/d), Kolya, Baggy, Almagro & Youzhny.

BOTB player nicknames help: http://www.murraytennisforums.com/showthread.php?t=253

REMAINING R1 MATCHES

The best we can do in terms of swing matches are Mayer 73% v (Q) Anderson, Tipsy 79% v Golubev and Dammit 78% v Gulbis - it is very unusual for there to be no 70/30 or closer matches at this stage!

One R2 match, Berdbrain 93% v Robredo 6%, is due to be played on Tuesday too.

indiana · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:

Wow, 1443 ranking points at present !! ,

Anyway, that was after just 2 matches. So let's see how things are going less than 24 hours later now that 15 matches have been completed.

Oh, 187 th = with errr 58 points

Don't you just love pick'em smile

steven · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:

indiana wrote:

Wow, 1443 ranking points at present !!     ,
Anyway, that was after just 2 matches. So let's see how things are going less than 24 hours later now that 15 matches have been completed.

Oh, 187 th = with errr 58 points

Don't you just love pick'em

It's particularly good for those 'pride comes before a fall' moments wink

Still, you've got to enjoy the good times for the short time they usually last! smile

steven · Tennis legend

2010 SHANGHAI MASTERS BOTB - DAY 3 'SYNDICATED' REPORT

Another rain-interrupted day has left 7 matches still to finish in R1, with the winners due to play twice tomorrow, in some cases against opponents who have already got through to R2. Having said that, rain is forecast for the whole day tomorrow according to Tipsy (a 79% pick who beat Golubev today), so goodness knows how big a backlog they will have by Thursday!

In other R1 matches that finished today, lucky loser DGT helped out the 80% who picked Fish before his withdrawal by beating Istomin, 98% pick Isner saved match points in two tiebreaks before overcoming Kubot, 93% pick Ferrer saw off Llodra, and 92% pick Duckboy got through when Kohli retired.

Chinese WC Bai Yan pulled off the big upset of the day when he beat Radek - congrats to a.m.p (BA), d man (BA), Alien (CC) & Busy Lizzie (ML) who somehow managed to get that one right. Another WC caused Ljubo some trouble too, but the 97% pick eventually came through.

Despite R1 being far from over, R2 got under way with an easy win for 93% pick Berdbrain against Robredo.

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

Rusedski.co.uk ended the day where they started, in 1st place, but new team the Bangors, up 1 to 2nd, continued to impress and even held the lead for a short time after Bai's win. Tennisopolis, up 3 to 3rd, complete the top 3 but the fastest risers of the day were AM.com, soaring up 8 to 4th.

The biggest fallers of the day (all down 3) were Team CC in 5th, BT.net in 7th, ATP DCC in 8th and the Feddies in 12th, while world no. 1s TAT have crawled out of last place, leaving MTF at the bottom.

INDIVIDUALS

The star of the day was Busy Lizzie (ML), up 1 to 1st after being the only entrant to manage a perfect 9/9 points on Tuesday - over 100 others got every match right except the Bai upset.

Hot on her heels are day 2 leader WallaceEMann (GR), down 1 to 2=, and JGS (IN) & ml7000 (IN), who started and finished the day in 2=.

A further point back in 5= are Imoen (BT), BenP (AM), Miles (TA), LadyTigress (IN), Fentiger (IN), Durbschick (CC) & HoneySuckle (DC), all up 1 place, plus Agi (DC), down 3.

ON THE RISE

No less than 32 entrants (I'm afraid I can't list all of them!) ended up as the equal fastest risers, up 43 to 116=, including two of the top 10 in the overall rankings, world no. 3 sparkey (GB) & cazza99 (AM), a former world no. 1 back in 2007.

DODGY DROPPERS

On such a high-scoring day, being outperformed by the gorillas was always going to be a big disaster and that is the fate that befell faller of the day Kamui010 (MT), down 177 to 198=, former world no. 2 Jose Javier/Buyaka86 (RF), down 59 to 218= after low-scoring for the day with just 3 points, and Xknowledge (RF), now outright last.

The last two entrants mentioned are among 8 still in the gorillas' cage - recent world no. 1 Scotsguy (ML) is another in the same predicament.

WEDNESDAY

It is anybody's guess whether any matches other than those scheduled for the main court will get played tomorrow, but ignoring the R2 matches where at least one player is not yet known (since they are scheduled for late on the outside courts and are thus least likely to get on court), the big swing match of the day in R2 looks like being Melzer 58% v DGT(ex-Fish) 38%.

Whatever the result in De Bakker 9% v Monaco 4%, a few entrants will steal a march on the rest of us, while the 8% who picked Dolgo to reach R3 could have another good day if he sees off Chardy, who was not picked to reach R3 by anyone.

LadyTigress · County player

steven wrote:

A further point back in 5= are Imoen (BT), BenP (AM), Miles (TA), LadyTigress (IN), Fentiger (IN), Durbschick (CC) & HoneySuckle (DC), all up 1 place, plus Agi (DC), down 3.

confuse Well that's a surprise! My end-of-season Pick'em luck strikes again. biggrin

Madrid '08. Shanghai '09. Shanghai '10? smile

eblunt · Club Coach

I managed to avoid picking Fish, only for Aunty to go down to DGT and my pickem has pretty much carried on downhill from there.

eblunt · Club Coach

Donkey carries on my beware of players ending in 'O' theme, although that's damage limited the Verdasco fiasco for me.

indiana · Tennis legend

steven wrote:

indiana wrote:

eblunt wrote:
Also note to self, always think carefully before picking any player who's name ends in 'O'. Just waiting for Donkey and Monaco to complete the set of pickem wreckers for me.
O dear. I've got DavydenkO to reach the final, yes beating Nadal in the QFs.

How the probable total stupidity of that line of thinking didn't fully insert itself into my consciousness until it was too late I am still at a loss to know
I don't know, you might be onto a good thing here - I was tempted to pick Kolya to beat Rafa too and while I ended up chickening out, I was surprised that only 4% did what you did given that he beat Rafa in straight sets twice last autumn, including the Shanghai Final, and then again in the Doha final the last time they met.

Oops, Zverev beats Davydenko

That just about puts the tin lid on my inglorious Shanghai campaign. See you in Paris

Hopefully my prediction of Tsonga beating Muzza in the QFs is just as good !

Go Andy !

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 13th of October 2010 03:58:46 PM