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Draws are up!
THE RULES
1. Pick quarterfinalists, semifinalists, finalists, and champions for both ATP and WTA draws. You will receive 7.5 points for each correct quarterfinalist, 5 points for each correct semifinalist and finalist, and 20 points for each correct champion. Nadal is only worth 10 points as a champion, he's back in clay conquering form.
2. SUBSTITUTE PICK: Pick a player from each draw to replace one of your quarterfinalists. If this player makes the quarters, they will take the place of whomever you picked in that section of the draw
3. BIGGEST LOSER: pick the highest seed that will lose in the earliest round from each draw. The player must be a top-16 seed. You get 5 points if your seed is the highest to lose and 2 points if your seed falls in the same round as the highest seed to lose.
EXTRAS
***Unseeded quarterfinalists are worth an extra half point for every seed they take out en route.
***WTF bonus: if you have a pick that makes it to the quarterfinals that no one else made (not even as a substitute pick), you'll gain an extra 5 points for it. If there are only two contestants, then the WTF bonus is not in effect.
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My picks!
Men
Quarterfinals
Del Potro (Murray) v. A. Zverev
Wawrinka v. Tsonga
Dimitrov v. Nadal
Thiem v. Djokovic
Semifinals
A. Zverev v. Wawrinka
Nadal v. Djokovic
Final
Nadal d. A. Zverev
BL: Cilic
Women - your guess is as good as mine here
Quarterfinals
Kerber v. Wozniacki
Muguruza v. Venus
Keys v. Halep
Konta (Radwanska) v. Safarova
Semifinals
Kerber v. Venus
Halep v. Konta
Final
Kerber d. Halep
BL: Kvitova
While nobody is considering Kerber winning this slam, if she plays through her quarter, I like her odds. She matches up very well against Wozniacki and Halep if the draw goes as I have it, and I would frankly be shocked if Venus makes it to the quarterfinals, but I can't see anyone else from her section getting there.
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ATP
Quarterfinals
A. Zverev (Cuevas) over Murray
Wawrinka over Tsonga
Nadal over Dimitrov
Djokovic over Thiem
Semifinals
Zverev over Wawrinka
Nadal over Djokovic
Final
Nadal over Zverev 4-6 6-1 7-6, 6-2
Sub: Cuevas
Biggest loser: Sock
WTA
Quarterfinals
Stosur over Bertens
Venus over Lucic-Baroni
Halep over Sevastova (Svitolina)
Pavlyuchenkova over Konta
Semifinals
Stosur over Venus
Halep over Pavyluchenkova
Final
Halep over Stosur 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
Sub: Svitolina
Biggest loser: Cibulkova
EDIT: I did not look at your men's picks before I made mine. We have 7 of the same 8 quarterfinalists (all 8 counting Murray as your wildcard), the same semifinalists, the same finalist and the same winner. Even on the predictable men's side, that's remarkable.
Last edited by funches (5/27/2017 3:00 pm)
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My ironclad prediction for the WTA is that everyone's What have you done for lately pick, Mladenovic, will crash and burn early. I've liked her potential in the past and been wiped out in the early round of two TAT survivor pools by her nerves, which will be in full display in her home country. She's a hit or miss player who cannot win when she's not on, and she's coming in with an injury.
Last edited by funches (5/27/2017 2:59 pm)
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I'll give credit where credit is due. Despite being a double-fault machine who appeared on the verge of falling apart at times in this tournament, Mladenovic made the quarterfinals by playing incredibly clutch tennis when it mattered most. She could have lost to Brady in the first round and she should have lost to Rogers in the third round, but she came up with the goods on the most important points.
She's down a set to Bacsinszky during the rain delay. I hope Bacsinszky finishes her off because Mladenovic could give Halep problems in the final if they both get there.
Halep is the best player left, but her supposedly newfound mental strength will be tested against Svitolina, who has been incredible in decisive sets over the last 12 months. It cracked me up when Navratilova kept praising Halep's attitude in her 6-1, 6-1 beatdown of Suarez Navarro. Any player would have a great attitude on a day like that. The key will be handling a down stretch against Svitolina without getting mad at herself. If she stays even keeled, she should win.
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I have the results, and they were close.
As you mentioned, we pretty much had the same men's choices, so it came down to the women. Our picks there...were not so good. Halep could have won big for you, but she didn't win. That meant we were tied until bonus points came up.
So, the results:
funches: 89.5
Forehand_lob: 87.5
Your pick of Jack Sock as the biggest loser gave you the 2 point difference. Congrats, funches!
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Yeah, I've never made a good biggest loser pick until that one, but I was irritated when Zverev became an even bigger loser.
We both would have been lapped by the field with our women's picks since Mladenovic was a consensus quarterfinalist and some would have picked Pliskova because of her seed.