Good day, mates I hope everyone had a good offseeason and is ready to kick it off in the new year. For some extra spice, I invite everyone to take part in this game that might well be considered a forum tradition by now.
HOW TO PLAY:
Rule changes compared to US Open - None (just a rephrasing. Veterans need not necessarily read):
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. Each pick has to be submitted before the relevant match starts and once you've submitted the pick, you are stuck with it unless the match did not happen due to a prematch withdrawal. In that case you get to submit a new pick. That's the basic rules already.
Tiebreaker:
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.
Onto the cases:
Case: A pick I made became invalid because the match didn't happen due to a withdrawal. I have a life and don't sit on the computer all day to monitor such things, so wasn't able to submit a replacement pick. Am I screwed? Decision: No, there is a backup solution. 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.
Case: There was a retirement. Does the pick still count? Decision: Yes, picks count the moment 1 ball has been played in the match.
Case: I looked at the wrong schedule and picked a player that doesn't even play. What now? Decision: Please submit a new pick.
Case: A lot of matches were rescheduled for the next day due to rain. Can I pick from those on the new day? Decision: No, rescheduled matches are not eligible to be picked from. If this situation arises, I will try to post a list of ineligible matches.
Case: I have a great suggestion for the comp. Am I allowed to tell you and others? Decision: Sure, suggestions are always welcome!
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:
Advanced to day 7 - snowynoon and GRANTCKING going strong in both competition, joined for the men by Anubis8, who seeks to defend his 2023 AO men's trophy:
Anubis8 - O'Connell, Popyrin, Fils, Fritz, Auger-Aliassime, de Minaur GRANTCKING - Arnaldi, Zhang, Lehecka, de Minaur, Auger-Aliassime, Tsitsipas snowynoon - F. Cerundolo, Korda, Rune, Shelton, Dimitrov, Khachanov
Freshly out:
Blencathra - Shelton
Advanced to day 7 - snowynoon and GRANTCKING going strong in both competition, joined for the men by Anubis8, who seeks to defend his 2023 AO men's trophy:Anubis8 - O'Connell, Popyrin, Fils, Fritz, Auger-Aliassime, de MinaurGRANTCKING - Arnaldi, Zhan
Tommy Paul lost in dramatic fashion today, missing out on multiple match points, and Dimitrov also failed to come through for the defending champ GRANTCKING, which means we do have a winner. Snowynoon makes their debut on the winners' list, with them still also very much in the running to complete the feat of winning both sexes at a tournament.
Well done, snowynoon, congratulations and good luck in the women!
Thank you everyone for playing and hope to see you at Wimbledon.
Tommy Paul lost in dramatic fashion today, missing out on multiple match points, and Dimitrov also failed to come through for the defending champ GRANTCKING, which means we do have a winner. Snowynoon makes their debut on the winners' list, with them