WTA BOTP Competition for US Open 2011

I guess Super8 hasn't found us, but I've just had a look on Centre Court forum and the form is up. Super8 is away the whole weekend so won't get my message, but you can download the entry form from there without logging on. It's at http://www.cctennisworld.com/tennis-forum/21-fun-a-games/16782-re-wta-pick-em-botp-us-open-2011-deadline-4pm-mon-29-aug.html#16838

Hello!!

I have now joined the brand new Andy Murray forum. Kudos to everyone who managed to get this up and running in time for the US Open!!

I have now set up a predictions form including the qualifiers. I have replaced the one that was originally on the CC thread.

It looks as if I cannot upload the predictions form onto this thread - however, it can still be found on the link that Linda has posted.

If anyone wants to take part and is struggling to make the 4pm deadline, then please do still send it in - even if it is (say) 15-30 minutes late..

Great to see you here Super8. I've got family stuff going on, but I'll try and get mine in if I can.

Super8
My PM's seem to be stuck in my outbox.
Here are my picks. Numbers are per round.

Wozniacki 2
Benesova 2
Daniela Hantuchova SVK (21) 2
Elena Baltacha GBR 2
Andrea Petkovic GER (10) 2
Casey Dellacqua AUS (WC) 2
Date Krumm 2
Na Li CHN (6) 2

Victoria Azarenka BLR (4) 2
Serena Williams USA (28) 2
Shahar Peer ISR (23) 2
Ana Ivanovic SRB (16) 2
Jelena Jankovic SRB (11) 2
Petra Martic CRO 2
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP (32) 2
Francesca Schiavone ITA (7) 2

Petra Kvitova CZE (5) 2
Lucie Safarova CZE (27) 2
Yanina Wickmayer BEL (20) 2
Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12) 2
Razzano 2
Julia Goerges GER (19) 2
Rezai 2
Maria Sharapova RUS (3) 2


Christina McHale USA 2
Maria Kirilenko RUS (25) 2
Nadia Petrova RUS (24) 2
Samantha Stosur AUS (9) 2
Klara Zakopalova CZE 2
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 2
Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP (30) 2
Vera Zvonareva RUS (2) 2
------------------------------------
Wozniacki 3
Daniela Hantuchova SVK (21) 3
Andrea Petkovic GER (10) 3
Na Li CHN (6) 3

Serena Williams USA (28) 3
Ana Ivanovic SRB (16) 3
Jelena Jankovic SRB (11) 3
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP (32) 3

Petra Kvitova CZE (5) 3
Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12) 3
Julia Goerges GER (19) 3
Maria Sharapova RUS (3) 3

Maria Kirilenko RUS (25) 3
Samantha Stosur AUS (9) 3
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 3
Vera Zvonareva RUS (2) 3
--------------------------
Wozniacki 4
Andrea Petkovic GER (10) 4
Serena Williams USA (28) 4
Jelena Jankovic SRB (11) 4
Petra Kvitova CZE (5) 4
Maria Sharapova RUS (3) 4
Samantha Stosur AUS (9) 4
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 4
--------------------------
Wozniacki 5
Serena Williams USA (28) 5
Petra Kvitova CZE (5) 5
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 5
--------------------------
Serena Williams USA (28) 6
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 6
--------------------------
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 7

FAO of Super8.
Sorry to have done the picks like this!

Wozniacki 1
Rus 1
Arn 1
Benesova 1
Daniela Hantuchova SVK (21) 1
Paszek 1
Elena Baltacha GBR 1
Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS (15) 1
Andrea Petkovic GER (10) 1
Jie Zheng CHN 1
Casey Dellacqua AUS (WC) 1
Begu 1
Tamarine Tanasugarn THA 1
Date Krumm 1
Carla Suarez Navarro ESP 1
Na Li CHN (6) 1

Victoria Azarenka BLR (4) 1
Rebecca Marino CAN 1
Qualifier 1
Serena Williams USA (28) 1
Shahar Peer ISR (23) 1
Sloane Stephens USA (WC) 1
Petra Cetkovska CZE 1
Ana Ivanovic SRB (16) 1
Jelena Jankovic SRB (11) 1
Dokic 1
Petra Martic CRO 1
Tatishvili 1
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP (32) 1
Keothavong 1
Qualifier 1
Francesca Schiavone ITA (7) 1

Petra Kvitova CZE (5) 1
Monica Niculescu ROU 1
Jill Craybas USA (WC) 1
Lucie Safarova CZE (27) 1
Yanina Wickmayer BEL (20) 1
Anastasia Rodionova AUS 1
Lauren Davis 1
Agnieszka Radwanska POL (12) 1
Shuai Peng CHN (13) 1
Razzano 1
Doi 1
Julia Goerges GER (19) 1
Rezai 1
Qualifier 1
Anastasiya Yakimova BLR 1
Maria Sharapova RUS (3) 1

Marion Bartoli FRA (Cool 1
Christina McHale USA 1
Vera Dushevina RUS 1
Maria Kirilenko RUS (25) 1
Nadia Petrova RUS (24) 1
Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA 1
Vendeweghe 1
Samantha Stosur AUS (9) 1
Dominika Cibulkova SVK (14) 1
Klara Zakopalova CZE 1
Venus Williams USA 1
Sabine Lisicki GER (22) 1
Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP (30) 1
Qualifier 1
Kateryna Bondarenko UKR 1
Vera Zvonareva RUS (2) 1

I emailed mine to you Super8 - hope you got it OK.

Oh darn! TOTALLY FORGOT. So very sorry.

Admin - no problem re: entry - how you have posted it is pretty much how many folk do it at CC!

Cazza - received your entry - all good!

RL - I have just e-mailed you

Originally going to pick Sharapova as finalist and then went for Kvitova, bit of a disaster! Unless of course Maria goes out too!

I had Kvitova losing to Zvonareva in the semis.

Linda wrote:Disaster! I've lost Kvitova!

Even though Kvitova has been in poor form in the US HC summer so far, this was still a total shock!

The first Wimbledon Champ to then lose in the first round of the US Open in the Open Era, no less.

I'd heard that she has been suffering from Asthma in the other HC tourneys - don't know if this is true...

Hello!

Just to give you a quick update on the WTA pick 'em..

There are 18 folk taking part - who are as follows:

Big Al (CC)
Cazza99 (AM)
Dark Necrofear (CC)
fah51 (CC)
Icona (CC)
James4578 (AM)
JaneinScotland (JM)
Linda (AM)
LivLuvLaf (CC)
lizzim (JM)
MacBorg (CC)
Mojoworkoing (CC)
nevets (CC)
northernlight/ super8 (CC/AM)
tabbles (CC)
tlim (CC)
SallyDaisy (AM)
Vivahate (CC)

And that makes it 12 from CC, and 6 from AM/JM.

If I have missed anyone out then please let me know!

I realise that this pick 'em has been organised at a time when am.com was in total turmoil - so am really happy that the AM/ JM folk have still been able to take part - kudos to you all!! Also - I have been ridiculously busy over the last month, so have not had time to cajole folk to take part - so kudos also to the CC folk who have also pulled out the stops to take part. Yay!!

Thankfully, my life will be more in the bus lane than the fast lane over the next few evenings - so will hope to get up to speed with posting some details of predictions, tables re: the results so far. I will certainly provide more tomorrow night..

Thanks Super8

Thanks Super8

I do not think that ever before have I lost two semifinalists at this early stage of the tournament

Hello again

Well, in terms of uploading things onto threads, I struggled a little with the upgrade of the previous am.com forum..

The struggle has increased tenfold here - ccan anyone please show me how to upload screenshots onto this thread?

I can do it at CC - but it would of course help immensely if I can do the same here.


In the meantime - all predictions have been processed. A quick rundown of the predicted winners of this tournament:

Na Li (6%)
Serena (76%)
Kvitova (6%)
Sharapova (6%)
Lisicki (6%)

It would be fair to say that SW is heavily favoured by the CC folk!!

And in the light of the results in the 2 days so far, it is also a first that we have already lost 2 predicted winners. From those who watched it over at CC (I missed it) - it sounds like car crash tennis from both the French Open champ and the Wimbledon champ.

Mind you - if you want a real leveller for this competition, all we need is for Serena to slip up and that will be the case in one fell swoop!!

I can post the daily reports on the thread - but until I am able to post screen shots, those of you with CC membership can view them over there..

Have you tried the "Host an image" button? There is no attachment feature.

Hawkeye wrote:Have you tried the "Host an image" button? There is no attachment feature.

I tried that - but it didn't seem to grab anything..

And if this tournament could not get too much more dramatic already, apparently Venus Williams has withdrawn from the tournament..

Update: She has apparently been diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome - which admittedly, I had to look up:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/physical_health/conditions/sjogrensyndrome1.shtml


Poor Venus.

Day 1's table is over at CC:

http://www.cctennisworld.com/tennis-forum/21-fun-a-games/16782-wta-pick-em-botp-us-open-2011-deadline-4pm-mon-29-aug.html?limit=15&start=30#17032

I think that all am/jm folk taking part (apart from Sally) are members over there..

Sally - you're equal 9th, with 20 correct picks out of 27. Top score 23, bottom score 18..

Report to follow.. and that will be on this thread!

BOTP Report: Day 01

Welcome to the BOTP report for the first day of the US Open 2011! Without any further ado, here are how today’s opening skirmishes turned out.


Routine Wins – Mostly!!!

(2) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. (Q) Stéphanie ForetzGacon (FRA) 63 60
(3) Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. Heather Watson (GBR) 36 75 63
(8 ) Marion Bartoli (FRA) d. (Q) Alexandra Panova (RUS) 75 63
(9) Samantha Stosur (AUS) d. Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) 62 63
(12) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (Q) Urszula Radwanska (POL) 62 63
(13) Peng Shuai (CHN) d. Varvara Lepchenko (USA) 63 64
(14) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) d. Zhang Shuai (CHN) 63 64
(19) Julia Goerges (GER) d. Kristina Barrois (GER) 63 62
(24) Nadia Petrova (RUS) d. (Q) Chan Yung-Jan (TPE) 63 16 64
(25) Maria Kirilenko (RUS) d. Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 46 61 76(3)
Venus Williams (USA) d. VesnaDolonts (RUS) 64 63

Well, these were the wins that everyone predicted. Well, done us.

It wasn’t plain-sailing for all of them though. At 3-6, 5-5, Sharpie was flirting with a the idea of a shock defeat at the hands of Heather Watson – but it was a case of close, but no cigar for the youngster from Guernsey.

I believe that Sharpie was on prime form with her screeching!! Princess Kirilenko also won a tight one against big-hitting leftie Ekat Makarova..


The Americans Are Coming! (Sort of)

Irina Falconi (USA) d. Klara Zakopalova (CZE) 36 64 62 (0/100)
Christina McHale (USA) d. (Q) Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) 63 67(5) 64 (72/28)
(WC) Madison Keys (USA) d. (WC) Jill Craybas (USA) 62 64 (11/89)

Well, these could indeed be signs that the USA could well be starting to see who exactly will fly the flag when the Williams pair retire.

Madison Keys is the youngest player in the draw at just 16 years old. She is also the lowest-ranked at 455. At the tender age of 14, she was also the youngest player to win a WTA match since Martina Hingis in 1994. One to watch, then. LivLuvLaf and IconA were astute enough to predict this win. Bravo!!

No-one foresaw Falconi’s win over Klara Zak. It was the 21-year-old New Yorker’s first win in a slam in 4 attempts, having lost in round 1 in all of the other slams this year.


“Majority Picks”

(30) Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) d. (Q) Karin Knapp (ITA) 67(4) 64 63 (94/6)
(27) Lucie Safarova (CZE) d. Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) 26 63 62 (94/6)
Monica Niculescu (ROU) d. Patricia Mayr-Achleitner (AUT) 63 63 (83/17)
Vera Dushevina (RUS) d. AnastasijaSevastova (LAT) 63 64 (89/11)
AnastasiyaYakimova (BLR) d. (Q) NoppawanLertcheewakarn (THA) 60 46 63 (89/11)
KaterynaBondarenko (UKR) d. Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 63 60 (83/17)
TsvetanaPironkova (BUL) d. VirginieRazzano (FRA) 62 63 (78/22)
(Q) Laura Robson (GBR) d. Ayumi Morita (JPN) 76(5) 10 ret. (right shoulder injury) (67/33)
Laura Pous-Tio (ESP) d. MisakiDoi (JPN) 62 67(12) 52 ret. (cramping) (61/39)

Most of us picked these ones correctly, with a few mavericks looking for minor upsets!

It was notable that both retirals were Japanese players – and along with Nishogori’s retiral on the ATP side made for a strange day for the Japanese contingent.

Well done to Laura Robson who won the battle of the players I pink dresses to get another round 1 win under her belt.

“Minority Picks”

AllaKudryavtseva (RUS) d. Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) 76(1) 75 (39/61)
(Q) RominaOprandi (ITA) d. Melanie Oudin (USA) 60 76(7) (33/67)
PolonaHercog (SLO) d. BethanieMattek-Sands (USA) 61 63 (11/89)

Poor Melanie Oudin. 2 years ago, she had that fairy tale run when she beat the likes of Sharapova and Dementieva en route to the semi finals. Since then she has been drifting over to slumpsville.

And Lady Ga Ga fan Bethanie Matt-Sands faced the ignomy of a round 1 defeat – just as she did at Wimbledon. Polona Hercog successfully transferring some of her recent claycourt form to hard court, then.

Just 2 BOTP folk successfully predicted Polona's win: Linda and fah51. Well done, both of you!

I can’t say I’m sorry to see Rodionova out by the way..!


“The “What On Earth Happened?” Match”

Alexandra Dulgheru (ROU) d. (5) Petra Kvitova (CZE) 76(3) 63 (11/89)

Now then. Petra Kvitova. What have you done to us?!!

Umpteen unforced errors. You played car crash tennis. Disaster! You had BOTP folk backing you to not only reach the semis or finals – but also to win the tournament!

Here is Petra’s response to where it all went wrong:

"It was the head."

Apparently the pressure of being Wimbledon Champ has really got to her. I really hope that she is able to deal with this. After having such a fabulous Aus Open, French Open and of course SW19, maybe this is a little blip.

Of course, this result caught us all out, with the exception of Dark Necrofear and MacBorg. More on that later.

BOTP Summary: day 01

Well, it was a decent opening day, all told, with BOTP folk averaging 20-21 picks out of 27 – a 74% pick rate.

LivLuvLaf is the early front-runner, with her inspired pick of Madison Keys helping to set her apart from the chasing pack.

The remaining 37 round matches will be played on day 02 – expect plenty of movement in the BOTP table!!

Hello again..

The BOTP tables for day 02 are now available at CC.

Quite a lot of movement on a day when 37 matches were played!

Daily report to follow.

BOTP Report – Day 02

Hello again – and welcome to the BOTP report for day 02! With 37 matches played on this day, this will be by far the most that I shall have to summarise – the number drops to just 16 tomorrow – so without any further ado, time to get on with things..

“The Americans are Coming (Part 2)!”

Coco Vandeweghe (USA) d. Alberta Brianti (ITA) 75 63 (39/61)
Vania King (USA) d. Greta Arn (HUN) 61 64 (56/44)
(WC) Sloane Stephens (USA) d. (Q) Reka-Luca Jani (HUN) 62 36 76(3) (72/28)

It was another good day for the American Women, with excellent wins by Coco and Vania over their higher-ranked opponents – and a fine win also for Sloane Stephens in a tough contest. BOTP folk also found these difficult to predict, with the crowd pretty much split for the first 2 wins – but found a win for the world 106 against the world 222 (I hadn’t heard of Jani either) easier to predict.

“More Post-Wimbledon Come-downs”

(Q) Sílvia Soler-Espinosa (ESP) d. Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN) 76(5) 76(2) (6/94)
Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB) d. Tamira Paszek (AUT) 64 62 (11/89)
(26) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) d. (WC) Aravane Rezai (FRA) 61 64 (78/22)

No Heroics from KDK Paszek or Rezai, this time!

Only James4578 and nevets picked Akgul to beat Tammy P. Bravo!

KDK’s defeat caught nearly all of us out. Ony [n]nevets[/b] (again!) picked this one. Well done nevets!!


”Tough Matches to Call”

Carla Suárez Navarro (ESP) d. Mathilde Johansson (FRA) 62 46 75 (67/33)
Petra Martic (CRO) d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) 57 63 64 (61/39)
Alizé Cornet (FRA) d. (WC) Casey Dellacqua (AUS) 75 60 (61/39)
Mirjana Lucic (CRO) d. (Q) Marina Erakovic (NZL) 64 26 64 (61/39)
(Q) Michaella Krajicek (NED) d. Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) 36 76(4) 61 (56/44)
Gisela Dulko (ARG) d. Rebecca Marino (CAN) 63 63 (44/56)
Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) d. Anne Keothavong (GBR) 75 63 (44/56)

These seemed to be matches that could swing either way, depending on which player hit better form on the day – and was reflected in the fact that the predictions were much more evenly split – and was also reflected in the fact that many of these matche went to 3 sets.

It was also a mixture of older players who had former career highpoints – and a few up-and-coming youngsters. Disappointing that Brit Anne Keo lost – by her account, she did not have a good match.

“Business as Usual”

(1) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) 63 61
(4) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. Johanna Larsson (SWE) 61 63
(7) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. (Q) Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ) 63 16 64
(10) Andrea Petkovic (GER) d. (Q) Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS) 62 62
(11) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. (WC) Alison Riske (USA) 62 60
(15) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. Sara Errani (ITA) 75 61
(16) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. Ksenia Pervak (RUS) 64 62
(20) Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) d. Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 61 75
(22) Sabine Lisicki (GER) d. Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 63 63
(28) Serena Williams (USA) d. Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 61 61
Zheng Jie (CHN) d. (Q) Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS) 46 75 62

Top players rolled over the lower-ranked players – and we all picked these. A notable exception was Fran’s win over Voskoboeva, where Galina really took the match to Fran – and Fran was a little fortunate to squeak through.

”A few Mavericks in the Midst!”

(17) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) d. Anna Tatishvili (GEO) 62 62 (94/6)
(18) Roberta Vinci (ITA) d. Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) 63 64 (94/6)
Elena Baltacha (GBR) d. (WC) Jamie Hampton (USA) 26 62 51 ret. (heat illness) (94/6)
(23) Shahar Peer (ISR) d. Sania Mirza (IND) 67(5) 63 61 (83/17)
(29) Jarmila Gajdosova (AUS) d. Iveta Benesova (CZE) 76(5) 75 (83/17)
(31) Kaia Kanepi (EST) d. Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) 64 63 (83/17)
Angelique Kerber (GER) d. (WC) Lauren Davis (USA) 76(3) 63 (83/17)
Petra Cetkovska (CZE) d. Evgeniya Rodina (RUS) 16 61 62 (78/22)
Jelena Dokic (AUS) d. Olga Govortsova (BLR) 63 61 (78/22)

However these Mavericks left empty-handed in these cases, where the majority verdict ruled in the end. A good win for Bally in a rare blank for one of the American youngsters. Bally has won in the opening round of all of the slams this year before falling to Henin, Vania King and Peng Shuai respectively. Can she buck the trend against Sveta in the next round?

”Crash and Burn!”

Simona Halep (ROU) d. (6) Li Na (CHN) 62 75 (0/100)
Pauline Parmentier (FRA) d. (21) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 62 63 (0/100)
Mona Barthel (GER) d. (32) María José Martínez Sánchez (ESP) 63 64 (0/100)

After Wimby champ Kvitova’s loss yesterday, it was the French Open champ’s turn to bite the dust. And again it was a horror story match. It was ErrorNa at her worst, with about 60 unforced errors.

Thoughts of the RG champ:

"It's a terrible feeling. Two years in a row, first round here, first round Indian Wells, Miami. Normally I like hard courts a lot. But I think these two years I'm just doing...."

Insert apt word at the end of this!! She seems to be questioning her coach too:

"He tell me everything is perfect, everything is fantastic. I say, 'Yes, everything is fantastic but I always lose first round.' I mean, this is not fantastic."

As for Dani and Pepa, who knows what went wrong there? Good wins for Barthel, Permentier and Halep – but the tournament feels lesser for these seeded players’ exits..


”Some Maverick Points”

Arantxa Rus (NED) d. Elena Vesnina (RUS) 62 64 (6/94)


Nice win for Arantxa Rus over Elena, who seems to be fading as a singles player – more a doubles player these days. Rus of course had a famous win over Clijsters at RG this year.

Only 1 BOTPer foresaw this win – ubermaverick SallyDaisy. Take a bow, Sally!!


BOTP roundup – day 02

BOTP pick rate took a bit of a dip for the day, dropping to 71% overall – partly due to a few seeds going out, but also partly to there being many matches between evenly-matched players, that proved difficult to predict.

An excellent day for James, who rocketed 8 places up to 10th, and a good day for Viva too, who moved up 5 to 4th. A handy day for Linda and lizzim who also moved up 3 places each accompanying James on 10th. Also a good day for tables who moved up 1 to pole position. Well done, all of you!!

There were also a few droppers. Not a great day at the office for IconA and Sally who both came out on the wrong side of a few of the marginal picks – and both dropped 8 places into the BOTP basement.

Hoqwever, the table is pretty tightly packed. Just 9 points between top and bottom place, and 2 points between the top 4! Whilst round 1 of the US Open was now completed, it is still very much early days, and as the sporting cliché goes, ‘anyone’s game’ – for BOTP, at least..!

Hello!

Quick update - tables for days 03 and 04 are posted over at CC...

The table after day 04 is a particularly interesting one!!! I don't think that I can recall seeing a table as tightly packed as that before..

I would hope to be able to write up days 03 and 04 at some stage, later tomorrow.. Will hope to be up to speed then..