Posted by Steven on 12/10/2009, 2:56 am, in reply to "Re: Shanghai Masters BOTB pick 'em - entries now open"
81.86.247.14
I knew I was going to regret promising to get back to doing daily reports for Shanghai, but silly me promised anyway, so here goes!
SHANGHAI MASTERS BOTB - DAY 1 'SYNDICATED' REPORT
194 people (plus 4 robot players) and 9 teams with 5 or more entrants are taking part in the BOTB for Shanghai.
It's not a big surprise that this is the lowest number of entrants and full teams for any pick 'em this year, given the time zone this tournament is in, the Sunday start, the ridiculously late main draw and the fact that the two players in the top five that usually provide big teams have withdrawn from the tournament!
Given all that, I am pleasantly surprised that entries are 9% up on Madrid 2008 and it says a lot for the commitment of BOTB entrants that our Shanghai entries are 'only' down 29% on Montréal whereas ATP Bracket Challenge entries are down 39%. So many thanks to all of you who managed to get entries done in time and commiserations to those caught out by the ridiculously short entry window, which is obviously beyond our control.
The top two teams in the overall rankings did particularly well in terms of numbers - Team GR actually managed more entrants than for Montréal and TAT entries held up well, making them the equal biggest team with AM.com after the latter's entries dropped quite a bit.
DAY 1
Day 1 saw just four of the R1 matches get played, with wins for narrow favourites F-Loppy (picked by 62%) and Beck (56%) and shock wins for Kunitsyn (23%) in the battle of the Igors and Chinese WC Zeng (13%), both Andreev and Sela muppeting away their matches from a set up. There may be plenty more upsets to come because R1 has a remarkably high number of matches where the majority pick and the bookies' favourite is behind in the H2H.
Detailed results can be found at http://www.britishtennis.net/competitions.html and from now on they will be updated regularly each day (after I wake up, at least!), with 'headlines' appearing on http://twitter.com/botb1 as well.
TEAMS
In a hint of a return to their old R1 form, MTF lead after day 1, though no full team has an adjusted score above 50%. They are followed by BT.net and Rusedski.co.uk.
Meanwhile, two of the top four teams in the overall rankings (no. 1 team TAT in 7th and no. 4 team Team CC in 8th) are in the bottom three, though both are ahead of TAT offshoot The Daily Forehand, who are currently bringing up the rear.
INDIVIDUALS
With two big shocks and the other winners each picked by less than 2/3 of the entrants, only two people managed to get a perfect 4/4 on day 1 - congratulations to elisat (TA) & PaulM (GB), who share the lead!
22 people headed by world no. 10 timmadigan (CC), but also including serial gorilla-bothererer sallydaisy (JM) and newbie Bumpington (GR), are a point behind. They are followed by 75 others plus all the bots on 2/4, but an unprecedented 95 entrants are in the gorillas' cage and 20 unfortunate souls, including world no. 1 kaseldop (GR) and former world no. 1 Pebs (MP), have not even managed to get off the mark yet!
WINNER PICKS
With Fed and Muzza out, lots of people have had to be more imaginative about potential winners this time. On the ATP BC, Potty is the narrow favourite to win with 33.1% followed by Nole in 31.1% and the bookies' favourite Rafa on 17.0%. The BOTB winner picks show a bit of variation from this:
33% Nole
29% Potty
20% Rafa
7% Duckboy
5% Tsonga
3% Cilic
1 each for Hewitt, Verdasco, Sod, Kolya & Simon
Other finalist picks are Haas, Gonzo, JCF, Dammit & Monfils.
(for a nicknames guide, see [url]http://www.andymurray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=253)
QUOTES OF THE DAY
Shanghai doesn't really seem to have caught the imagination yet (a lot of the forums seem unusually empty at the moment, not just on their BOTB threads), so there weren't exactly rich pickings to be had in the quotes stakes over the weekend, with a large number of posts being variations on the themes of "oh no, I missed the deadline" and "I've got a horrible feeling I'm on 0/4 at the moment ..."
Wolf (BT) echoed the thoughts of many of us about the draw: "Did anyone else see Karlovic v Blake at the top of the list and just think oh god here we go again?" ... and it didn't get much better after that either!
cloudy (AM) apologises in advance: "I don't know quite how it happened but I somehow have Davydenko winning. oops sorry team." ... then decides that getting an excuse in early might be a better option: "I have Davy winning my pickem and Tsonga winning the bracket. Can I say I was a bit drunk when I filled it in?"
Imoen (BT) made the same mistake as me ... and how many others, I wonder, and how many of them still haven't realised, for that matter: "Of course there was the realising half-way through that this wasn't in fact an indoor masters - where I got that idea from is anyone's guess."
Portsey (BT) thinks he may have worked out why Sela lost: "My money's on Chinese Voodoo, they stare across the net very well, Sela is obviously of a weak mind.........." - slandering both players in a match in the same sentence is quite impressive, I think!
Pebs (MP) fears the worst - "I do believe all my picks so far have gone out .... why do I play? Oh yes, the humilation and chance to get my **** roundly whipped - who could resist that???" - who indeed? In fact, neither of the MP girls have scored a point yet ...
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