The Aussie Open 2010 Guessing Game

So every time a grand slam tournament comes along, I join this contest over at the Tennis X forum, we basically predict who makes the quarters, semis, finals and who eventually wins, plus guesses on extra categories such as the Biggest Loser (Top 1-16 player who loses the earliest) and Winning Ugly (player who plays the most games on his/her way to the quarterfinals), and some bonus categories, in this case it's the Homeboy Hewitt Hanging On (guess the round when Aussie Lleyton Hewitt loses) and the Belgians vs Americans (who wins more matches on the women's side, the 4 Belgians or the 8 Americans?) We can also earn extra points for every bagel and breadsticks our quarterfinalists bake. (Note to non-tennis fans: A bagel is when a player wins a set with a score of 6-0, a breadstick = 6-1.)

So here are my picks. I wonder how I'll rank this time...

Men's side
Quarterfinals:
Roger Federer (SUI) vs Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
Richard Gasquet (FRA) vs Robin Soderling (SWE)
Andy Roddick (USA) vs Marin Cilic (CRO) (substitute player: Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG))
Andy Murray (GBR) vs Rafael Nadal (ESP)

Semifinals:
Federer vs Soderling
Cilic vs Nadal
(I'm a bit surprised with my own men's SF line-up, but let's see how it goes.)

Final:
Federer vs Cilic

Champion: Roger Federer (This really is more wishful thinking than an informed prediction, Roger might easily lose in the quarters to Davydenko based on recent results. He's already got 15 grand slams in the cabinet anyway, so this shouldn't be heartbreaking.)

WU: Reeshard Gasquet
BL: Novak Djokovic (the world #3 lost in straight sets to Fernando Verdasco, and in 3 sets to 17-year old, #291 Bernard Tomic last week, not a very good omen)
HHHO: 3rd round (to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis)

Women's side:
Quarterfinals:
Serena Williams (USA) vs Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) vs Venus Williams (USA)
Justine Henin (BEL) (substitute: Elena Dementieva (RUS)) vs Kim Clijsters (BEL)
Marion Bartoli (FRA) vs Maria Sharapova (RUS)

Semifinals:
Serena vs Wozniacki
Clijsters vs Sharapova
(I made this prediction last Sunday, before Masha lost to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko in the first match of the tournament yesterday. Go Makiri! :D)

Final:
Serena vs Clijsters
(Wanna bet Serena won't be challenging any calls on this match?)

Champ: Kim Clijsters (picking up a back-to-back Grand Slam, the 3rd of her career, and remain unbeaten this year. I'm actually rooting for Justine or Elena, but they'll be facing each other in the 2nd round, then Kim in the quarters... But really this is all just wishful thinking again, since the title will probably go to Serena anyway.)

WU: Caroline Wozniacki (she could meet Daniela Hantuchova in the 4th round, and I'm just hoping Daniela makes a match out of it.)
BL: Elena Dementieva
Belgium vs USA: America, but only by a small margin. And only because the four Belgians in the draw are all in the same quarter.

10th out of 17241

For posterity's sake, just in case my ranking drops like a rock in the next few rounds. :D


I joined the ATP World Tour Draw Challenge for Roland Garros (fancy name for the French Open). It's sort of a fantasy league contest and it goes like this: before the tournament begins, you predict which players will win their first round matches and proceed to the 2nd round, where you again predict which players will win those matches and go on to the next round and the next round and the next round... until you pick who wins in the final match. You get points for each correct prediction you make, and if you get the most points at the end of the tournament, you win... something. (The grand prize is a 4-night trip for 2 to London to watch the ATP World Tour Finals, and it goes to the highest total scorer in 12 major ATP tournaments that the contest covers... although after reading the terms and conditions, I'm apparently not eligible to win the prize because I live in the Philippines. BOOOOOOOO!)

Anyway, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to sustain my top ten ranking. But seeing that I won't get a chance to win prizes anyway, I'm not sure why I should care.

I wish the WTA Tour would have something like this too. It'd be interesting, with all the inconsistent results from the top players, choke jobs from the youngsters and the head cases... And it'll give me 1 more reason to shout "C'mon Caroline Wozniacki!"



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