2023 US Open Mouse Trap Trophy (formerly suicide comp) (men's Edition)

Yippee-ka-yay, tennis fans! It is time for the final grand slam of the year. Entering this slam, the current leaderboard for the year is (both sexes combined)

2 wins: Anubis8, GRANTCKING
1 win: Blencathra, Journeyman

Will one of these be able to take a lead and win the year? We will know in about one to two weeks.

HOW TO PLAY:

Rule changes compared to Wimbledon - 2:

1)

Previous rule: No tiebreaker at the end. If the last remaining competitors went out on the same day, everyone was deemed the winner.
New rule: Tiebreaker to make it so that one person stands apart and wins

If multiple people go out on the same day and no-one remains, these last people to go out, submit their best educated judgements regarding the outcome of the final match of the tournament - winner of the final, amount of sets lost by the winner, amount of games lost by the winner, points won by the winner. Judged also in that order. If both are the same in winner, then we go to sets. If both also had the same number of sets, then we go to games. If that's also still the same or the same difference to the actual number, then points won. That should hopefully always lead to a conclusion.

To enable that, those tiebreaker judgements will be sent to me per private message (or maybe X in some cases) instead of being publically announced in the thread. If the tiebreaker involves me, we'd have to find someone else who accepts the private messages, but I'm positive that will not be a problem.

If the situation arises that two heroic people make it all the way to the final match of the tournament, something we've never had I think, but you never know, and they can theoretically tie, then those judgements will also be sent to the host ahead of the final.

2)

Previous rule: Switching your pick freely after initial submission was possible (albeit often unstated in the rules, which led to confusion last time around)
New rule: You submit your pick, you are (almost always) stuck with that pick.

There are two exceptions:

a) You make an invalid pick (please no abuse). No automatic replacement picks are made for you in this case, so it is on you to post a replacement pick yourself.
b) You picked a player whose match doesn't happen because they or their opponent withdrew before the match. Please try to submit a replacement pick of your own choice, but since it cannot be expected that everyone is able to monitor the withdrawals throughout the day, there is a backup solution in place (unchanged from what it previously was). The last to start eligible favourite (I will use average odds on tennisexplorer.com) of the day is automatically entered for you. Eligible means player that had not been picked yet on a previous day.

Basic rules:

Pick a player each day. If your player wins, you advance to the next day and get to pick again. If your player loses, you are out. Each player can only be chosen once. The picks continue every day until only one person is left, everyone has been eliminated, or the tournament has finished. That's the basic rules already.

Some additional rules:
- picks have to be submitted before the relevant match starts
- in case of a retirement, all picks count as long as 1 ball of the match has been played
- switching is not allowed (see rules changes section)
- if your pick withdraws before the match and you do not submit a new pick for the day yourself, then the last to start eligible favourite (I will use average odds on tennisexplorer.com) of the day is automatically entered for you. Eligible means player that had not been picked yet on a previous day. This is done because it cannot be expected from people to be around all day.
- if you make an invalid pick it is upon you to post a replacement pick yourself in time. The above automatic pick after a withdrawal does not apply to that situation. I (and hopefully others) will try to keep an eye on validity of picks and try to make people aware in case there has been an invalid one that needs to be replaced.
- in case of (long) rain delays and carried over matches, you can not pick from these matches on the next day. I.e. a match is first scheduled on Monday, but there is rain and the match never starts on Monday. It is then rescheduled for Tuesday. In that situation you are not allowed to pick from that match. If this situation arises, I will try to post the ineligible matches.

At the end, glory, lots of forum cred, and an entry into the competition's Hall of Fame awaits the ultimate winner. The Hall of Fame can be found at:

https://community.betfair.com/tennis/go/thread/view/94186/30945693/suicide-pool-winners-throughout-the-years

I hope that covers everything. If there are any additional questions, feel free to ask.