This is just a reminder that the US Open Suicide Pool is on at TAT. If you have played it before you ought to know what to do. You can go here to play. You should find the instructions and the thread for the first day (after the OOP is announced) at that link. If you don't know how to play the Suicide Pool, read on.
The basic idea of the suicide pool (SP) is to pick for each day of the tournament (in this case the US Open) one player from the OOP who, you think, is going to win his match. If he/she wins his/her match you get to pick a fresh player from the next day's OOP. The end goal, of course, is to progress to the final and pick the eventual winner. There is a catch, in that you can only pick a player once for the entire tournament (so, for instance, you obviously want to save Ernests Gulbis for a later round)
There are separate games for the ATP and WTA draws for the open and you can play either or both of them.
Additional rules:
You have to be a registered member of TAT. Which you can become by registering through the readily available Register button.
We will be keeping track of the fortunes of the Twibe at the Suicide Pool. If you want to your name to be tracked, please indicate this with the text TW in your first day's (and only your first day's) pick. Example pick below:
***********************
Thomaz Belluci
Ptenisnet
TW.
***********************
There will be a fresh thread open (for pick posting) at TAT for every day of the tournament. And also a thread which tracks updated results.
You have to get your picks for each day, before play starts for the day.
All right, the US Open is bearing down on us, and that always means (tennis) party time in and around New York City. Tennis.com is joining with Fila to throw a party to help introduce James Blake's new line of clothing for Fila - kit that Blake himself helped to design to honor his late father, R. Thomas Reynolds Blake. As you all know, James and his father were very close. The details of that touching relationship were beautifully described by TW's very own Andrew Friedman (the artist formerly known as Rolo Tomassi) in Blake's auto-biography, Breaking Back.
I have a strong suspicion that Blake's line will be short on sleeveless Ts and pirata-style shorts, and long on collars and subdued colors, but what do I know about fashion?
Anyway, I'd like to invite a few representatives of the Tribe to the party, which will take place on the rooftop of a famous New York City landmark. Blake will be there, as will a celebrity DJ; there will be plenty of food and drink. If you'd like to attend, email me via the "Contact" tab at the top of this weblog, or my personal email (which many of you have; I will also put it up as the first comment at this post). I have a limited number of tickets, so if enough of you express an interest we'll have a drawing of some kind to determine who gets to attend.
I'll be there, of course, although I may be dressed in rags since we'll probably still be living out of suitcases (the good news is that the co-op board of the apartment house we're buying into approved our application just this morning). I believe Steve Tignor, Tom Perrotta, Ed McGrogan and many other Tennis.com and Tennis staffers will be there as well. And I'm hoping Andrew F. and his bitter on-court rival, Asad Raza, will also attend.
It ought to be a fun, relaxed evening, with great views of the city. So if you're interested in joining us, let me know. I'd like to have your requests by August 12th, so we can get our draw and final list completed by the end of that week.
I'll be back with our surprise contributor's thoughts on the women's hard-court season in a little while, and I'll auto-post a Your Call for tomorrow (it's move-out day for me, so that will be tomorrow's only post unless things go exceptionally slowly).
[[ Special thanks to Ptenisnet and all those who represented TW in the Wimbledon Suicide Pool. This is the Your Call Post for Today - Pete]]
Hey folks:
This should have been done a week ago. Apologies all around. The good news is that 16 people beat the Wimbledon Men's Draw. 3 of those 16 were TennisWorlders:
Please join me in congratulating Angel Of the Sf, Musab and Mwu on beating the draw.
Just in case you can glean the secret of their success, here is their path to victory:
TAT is once again hosting a Suicide Pool contest for
Wimbledon '09. Since we just did one, approximately a month ago, I am
not going into the whole set of details. But the link for the suicide
pool is here. There is a "How to play" thread, an FAQ and a new
thread open to place your picks for each day of play. The daily threads
are usually opened after the order of play has been announced. Your
picks have to be in place by start of play on Monday the 22nd.
Additional reminders courtesy of Master Ace:
1)
There are 3 Gonzalae (Fernando, Maximo and Santiago) and 2 Becks
(Karol and Andreas the GLDH) in the draw. So please be specific if you
pick any of those players.
2) If you want to identify yourself
as a TWer for the pool (we track those results independently), you need
to indicate TW in your first day pick.
e.g.
Grigor Dmitrov
Tony Snedeker
TW
3) You have to register with TAT (if you haven't already done so. You can do it through the Register link on the TATwebsite).
Have fun everyone.
--Ptenisnet
P.S. You are welcome to use this as today's YC post.
Great news everyone. You'll never guess what Master Ace did. He only went and won TAT's WTA French Open Suicide Pool didn't he? Given his Sharkoesque knowledge of the tour, it was just a matter of time before he did, don't you think/ Patrick (MA) was one of two people who made it all the way to the final but (having picked Safina to win it all) were eventually thwarted by Kuznetsova, the eventual champion.
Here is Patrick's illustrious road to victory. Petrova - Sharapova - Medina Garrigues - Ivanovic - A. Radwanska - Rezai - Razzano - Azarenka - S. Williams - Cibulkova - Stosur - Kuznetsova - Safina
Please join me in congratulating Patrick on his win.
I should also mention here that although there wasn't a Twibal winner on the ATP contest, Elenas made it all the way to a respectable day 11 before eventually running out of picks. A hearty thump on the back to her as well.
Hope to see all of you play the Wimbledon SP in a couple of weeks.
--Ptenisnet
Note - you can continue to do Queen's match calls and carry on tennis related discussion here. Mildly OT conversation is OK after play for the day has finished.
[Mornin', Pete here. I'll be back in a little while with some thoughts on Novak Djokovic, but meanwhile I want to call your attention to the Suicide Pool. Once again, Ptenisnet (one of TW's most senior and loyal readers/contributors) will be administering and updating you on the the Suicide Pool. I encourage all of you to play, and to play in the Tennisworldsubset (don't worry, you'll still be in the main pool as well). Meanwhile, this will be the Your Call thread for today.]
Hey folks. Our friends over at Talk About Tennis are once again organizing a Suicide Pool contest for the French Open. And as always, the Twibe is invited to participate.
For those who don't know how the Suicide Pool works:
For each day of the French Open you pick the winner of one match from the the scheduled matches for the day from the draw (TAT runs separate contests for the Men's and Women's draw). If you were correct in your prediction, you do the same thing the next day. If you are wrong you are eliminated. The object of the game is to progress to the last day and pick the champion accurately. There is a catch, which is that you are not allowed to pick the same player twice. A certain amount of strategy is, therefore, warranted in your picks (like not picking Nadal or Djokovic or Federer too early).
A more detailed description is available here.
To play the Suicide Pool, you need to be registered as a TAT member. If you haven't registered yet, you can do it fairly quickly at TAT.
A new Picks thread will be opened on the TAT Suicide Pool Forum for each day of the tournament , where you can post your picks.
You post your pick as a reply to the thread.
If you wish to be considered for the TW sub-contest, you need to follow a couple of additonal rules.
1) To enter, you must include the letters "TW" in your first pick posts. If you are participating in both pools (men and women), you must include "TW" in both the Men's and Women's Day 1 picks posts.
2) If your screen-name on TAT is different from the name you use at TennisWorld, you must include your TennisWorld name.
So, your first -day pick will look like this (Please make sure your pick and your name are on separate lines):
Kristof Vliegen TW, Ptenisnet (It will help the site administrators to leave some white space between your pick for the day and your screen name as Tribe member)
3) Include "TW" (and, if applicable, your TW screen name) only in your Day 1 picks. Please do not add "TW" indicator for the remaining days.
You can ask questions about the Suicide Pool here.
If you have questions about the TW part of the contest, you can send a message to mmmm8 through TAT's Private Message system. Do not post your questions on this thread as Mariya (aka mmmm8) doesn't really monitor this space.
Please note, there will be a new Picks thread opened for each day of the tournament after the Order Of Play for that day is announced. Look for the day 1 threads (at TAT ), once the order of play has been announced for day 1.
Important Rule Change For Returning Players: In the past, you only had to pick one match from either day 1 or day 2. This has changed. You now need to make a day 1 pick as well as a day 2 pick.
Good Luck. --Ptenisnet
P.S. if you get eliminated, no big deal. You can hang out and get virtually sloshed at the Loser's Lounge.
P.P.S. This is sort of obvious, but the dead line for entering the contest is the Scheduled Start of Play on Sunday, May 24th.
Looks like the links aren't showing up correctly. Here is the link for TAT again. TalkAboutTennis .
Hey guys, We have a winner!!! I am, of course talking about the TAT-AO 2009 Suicide Pool. Regular TennisWorld poster maedal was one of 3 persons who beat the draw on the men's side, in a 3 way tie. The tie was eventually decided by means of closest answers to the following questions. G: Total # of games for the match T: Time of the match, in minutes P: Points won by the winner of the match The tie was won by TW hit-and-runner Snoo Foo who guessed 51 games (the exact number). Congratulations to Maedal (and to Snoo Foo).
On the women's side, occasional TennisWorlder repoman was one of 13 people who beat the draw.
If you are curious, maedal's journey to the final looked like this: Robredo- Gasquet- Berdych- Gonzalez- Cilic - Monfils - Djokovic - Simon – Roddick - Verdasco - Federer - Nadal
and Repoman's: Kanepi - Stosur - Cornet - Pennetta - Petrova - Cibulkova - Dokic - Kuznetsova - Zvonareva - Dementieva - Safina - Serena Williams
Congratulations to all three of you.
Addendum: Australian Open 2009 Anti Slam Winners: Men: Kristof Vliegen (by way of Nadal b Federer b Roddick b Djokovic b Baghdatis b Fish b Bolelli b Vliegen) Women: Viktoriya Kutuzova (by way of Serena b Safina b Zvonoreva b Bartoli b Jankovic b Sugiyama b Dechy b Kutuzova)
Hope to see all of you playing again for the French. This is a Your Call post. And all the usual rules apply.
Tennis Action for the day: Finals at 3 ATP tournaments Zagreb: Mario Ancic Vs. Marin Cilic
Vina Del Mar: Fernando Gonzalez vs. Jose Acasuso
Johannesburg: Jo Wilfried Tsonga vs. Jeremy Chardy.
It's Australian Open time and everyone's favorite auto-offing game is back. Talk About Tennis has announced the 2009 Australian Open Suicide Pool - a contest that lets you share in the fortunes - and misfortunes - of your favorite players.
For those who are not familiar with the game, here is a brief description. For each day of the Open you pick the winner of one match from the scheduled matches for the day - one from the men's draw and one from the women's draw. If you were correct in your prediction, you do the same thing the next day. If you are wrong, you are eliminated. The object of the game is to progress to the last day and pick the champion accurately. There is a catch, which is that you are not allowed to pick the same player twice. A certain amount of strategy is, therefore, warranted in your picks (like not picking Andy Murray too early in the tournament - never mind what happened last year). There is a separate contest for the Men's draw and the Women's draw. A more detailed description is available HERE.
To play the Suicide Pool, you need to be registered as a TAT member. If you have not yet registered, registration is free and quick! Just go to TAT.
In addition to the general contest, We will be tracking the success of TWibers in the contest, like we have in the past. If you want to be part of the TW sub-contest, you need to follow a couple of additional rules.
1) To enter, you must include the letters "TW" in your first pick posts. If you are participating in both pools (men and women), you must include "TW" in both the Men's and Women's Day 1 picks posts.
2) If your screen-name on TAT is different from the name you use at TennisWorld, you must include your TennisWorld name.
So, your first -day pick will look like this (Please make sure your pick and your name are on separate lines):
Kristof Vliegen TW, mmmm8
(It will help the site administrators to leave some white space between your pick for the day and ID as Tribe member)
3) Include "TW" (and, if applicable, your TW name) only in your Day 1 picks. Please do not add the "TW" indicator on any subsequent days.
You can ask questions about the Suicide Pool here.
If you have questions about the TW part of the contest, you can send a message to mmmm8 (That's Fabulous Mariya) through TAT's Private Message system.
Please note, there will be a new Picks thread opened for each day of the tournament (one for Men's and one for Women's) after the Order Of Play for that day is announced. Threads will be created for Day 1 picks soon after the OOP for Day 1 is published.
Prizes will be awarded to the overall winners and, LJW has voluntered to send prizes as well.
I hope you participate and enjoy it. I will be sitting this one out on account of a heel injury.
[[It's funny, Ptenisnet, but I don't quite understand how a heel injury can hamper your ability to blow yourself to smithereens, but there you go. . . Although I'm too busy to take part in the SP, I sure hope Mariya et al will open a Loser's Lounge again, where all you early casualties will get a chance to mix and mingle with your fellow losers (I think of you as the beautiful and the damned, to borrow from Scotty). Who knows, maybe Marat will drop in, too! - Pete ]]
Hi there folks, Just wanted to share the results of the Wimbledon '08 Suicide Pool, where Twibers had quite a good showing. Much better than at the French Open. Maybe we are all grass court tennis fans, deep down (Most of us anyway. I got killed in the first round by Dudi Sela).
Bismarck did the best of all the TWers in the Women's draw, making it all the way to the final, but picking the wrong sister.
On the Men's side, 18 people beat the draw of which 3 were from TW. Those 3 are Prince49, Riley371 and waylandboy. I am told that the 18 winners is something of a record for SPs (Judging by the way things have been going, my guess would be that the previous record was set during a match involving Borg).
Congratulations to the Bissy, Prince, Riley and Waylandboy. I am not sure if TAT will do a suicide pool for the Olympics. Failing that, catch y'all at the US Open.
Hi there , Are you: Bummed that Justine Henin has retired? Down that Tsonga and Roddick are not playing the French Open? Depressed that your favourite player hasn't been handed a favourable draw?
Never fear. Whatever the source of your mental ill-being, we have the cure. Why not put your depression to good use? Play the Talk About Tennis Roland Garros 2008 Suicide Pool . Reap the benefit of offing yourself, without in fact, offing yourself. And there might be loot if you win. It's a win-win situation.
Newbies are, of course, welcome. Here are some things to keep in mind:
To play the Suicide Pool, you need to be registered as a TAT member. If you have not yet registered, registration is free and quick! Just go to TAT.
How to participate in the TW division of the contest:
The rules are as follows:
1) To enter, you must include the letters "TW" in your first pick posts. If you are participating in both pools (men and women), you must include "TW" in both the Men's and Women's Day 1 picks posts. (For those of you who have already posted your picks for day 1, no worries. You can follow this rule for Tuesday's pick and still play the TW suicide pool)
2) If your screen-name on TAT is different from the name you use at TennisWorld, you must include your TennisWorld name. (Again, for those of you who have already posted your picks for day 1, no worries. You can follow this rule for Tuesday's pick and still play the TW suicide pool)
So, your first -day pick will look like this (Please make sure your pick and your name are on separate lines):
Kristof Vliegen
TW, mmmm8
(it will help the site administrators to leave some white space between your pick for the day and ID as Tribe member)
3) Include "TW" (and, if applicable, your TW name) only in your Day 1 picks (or, of course, day 2 if you have already made your picks for day 1). Please do not add the "TW" indicator for the remaining days.
4) If you have questions about the Suicide Pool, you can ask them at TAT, in this thread. Make sure to read the description of how the SP is played first, here.
5) If you have questions about the TW part of the contest, you can send a message to mmmm8 through TAT's Private Message system.
Because of the Sunday start, you are allowed to make your first pick EITHER on Sunday or Monday (you don't pick on both days). However, if your first pick happens to be a Sunday match you have to post your pick before start of play on Sunday. If your first pick is from a Monday match, you have until start of play on Monday to post your pick.
Sincere apologies for the delayed notice. Hope many(if not all) of you will participate. It's a load of fun. They even have a loser's lounge to drown your sorrows in.
Hey guys,
Hey Folks:
