[NorthernLight]

This blog is a pretty good preview of the final:

Serena v Justine

I like the slo-mo clips of both players that are included in the article. More of that, please!

This post has been edited by NorthernLight: 29 January 2010 - 10:43 PM

[NorthernLight]

BOTP Report: Day 12

Hello, and welcome to the final day of the Ladies’ Singles Tournament of the Australian Open for 2010!

And so, just the one match to report on today – and one final BOTP prediction to see out.

Final: Serena v Justine

First Set: Serena 6-4


Both players were out of the blocks pretty quickly. Serena served first, and Justine putting immediate pressure on her, getting 2 break points. Serena’s big serves saved her, and a few deuces later, manages to hold. It looked like a long, competitive match on the cards!

If anyone was getting the jitters, it seemed to be the linesfolk. Within the first game and a half, 3 points were challenged correctly – 2 by Justine, and one by Serena. One call was so bad that it drew gasps from the crowd.

Out of nowhere, Serena broke to love. 3-1.

Justine had break points in the next game, and should have broken back, when she had the point all but won, and the umpire called her shot out then corrected herself. The umpire had no alternative but to replay the point, which Serena promptly won.

Nevertheless Justine did manage to break back and make it 4-4. But once again Serena broke serve and took the set 6-4

Second Set: Justine 6-3

The second set started off very competitively, with Justine under a lot of pressure to hold serve, and just about managed to do so. It looked as if the writing was on the wall for her at this stage.

However, a combination of Justine raising her game, and Serena looking a little weary and flat-footed resulted in Justine winning 4 games in a row from 3-2 down to take the second set! She won all of the final 10 points in the set!

Both players off for a comfort break, as they say – possibly to compose themselves for the decider.

Third Set: Serena 6-2

Justine continued the momentum from the second set, winning the first service game of the set, and then having 2 break points on Serena’s serve. Could this possibly be her seizing the initiative in the decider?

Well, Serena chose this time to rediscover her serve, and 2 booming serves later she is back to deuce and then finally holds. A big game, for sure!

Serena has woken up! She ups her game and this time she has 2 break points – and breaks Justine’s serve! Justine, however, is also a champion player, and gets 3 break-back points, and breaks back at the third time of asking. 1 Set apiece, and 2-2!

However, Serena breaks Justine’s serve in the next game. Can she hold onto her own serve this time? Well, she had rediscovered her big serve, which helped her hold to go up 4-2.

By now, Justine seems to be tiring, and the zip that was in her game towards the second set seems to have gone. No mojo for JuJu, sadly, and Serena breaks her serve again – 5-2. The scream of delight from Serena says it all.

Serena serving for the match. More big serves. Makes it very routine, apart from Justine saving one match point with a totally mi**** return that made Serena smile. One big serve and a rasping backhand winner later and it is all over.

Game, Set and Championship to Serena!


A good match, very absorbing in parts. Both played pretty well in patches, and miles better than any of the recent AO finals.

A great tournament for both Serena and Justine!

BOTP Summary

I usually update the BOTP table first, and then write the summary. However, I actually have not updated the table yet!

All that I can do right now is to give you some BOTP prediction percentages:

Serena to win: 36%
Venus to win: 7%
Elena Dem to win: 7%
Justine to win: 7%
Kim to win: 43%
People from the 4th quarter to win: 0!

So with a good 36% of folk picking up a very handy 7 points, there are indeed likely to be a few changes in the table. Who has won the BOTP for the Aussie Open for 2010? Table to follow shortly.

[NorthernLight]

Hello again,

Well, well – a lot of movement in the BOTP table!

It became very tight at the top, with just 7 points separating the top 11 posters! It really was nip an tuck all the way. It really was a case of a few key results here and there – perhaps half a dozen that had a major impact on BOTP.

And here is the final table! I shall write a few comments on this in the next post..

 BOTP Final.png (129.12K)
Number of downloads: 15

[NorthernLight]

Well, I shall start with copying a post from the BOTP winner, made earlier on this thread His post read thus:

I enjoy these reports, even when I'm doing badly.

That no-slam-final-meetings is a real of a stat - and a bit of a contrast to the nearest equivalent pairing in the men's game, Federer and Nadal, who have met in seven GS finals (I think that's a record by the way).

For the final, well, I would much prefer a Justine victory but my head says Serena, so I picked Serena.

Tlim’s decision to pick Serena over Justine – to go with his head rather than his heart – proved to be pivotal in the outcome of the pick ‘em. As the table shows, he had a storming final few rounds, top-scoring in the quarters, semis and indeed the final, being one of only 2 BOTPers to pick both finalists!

Bravo tlim. Please take a much-deserved bow!

The final battle of the battle of the posters (if that makes sense?) was actually between tlim and MacBorg. Had Justine won, then MacBorg would surely have completed one of the most sensational climbs up any predictions table, having been languishing at the bottom for the first few days! As it turned out, she came a very impressive 5th.

There was a 3-way tie for runner-up, with Wolfie, janeinscotland and Big_Al all having an excellent tournament. In fact, Wolf had the highest number of correct picks of anyone, with Jane and Al a solitary pick behind.

Had Safina not suffered a back problem and progressed even one solitary round further – and she looked good enough to go further than that – then Jane and Big Al would have won BOTP. Jane was one of the BOTPers who had kept the faith with Safina after also backing her to go far at the US Open, along with Linda B and Rondun. They were unlucky not to benefit from the shock defeat of Sharpie, and the draw opening ujp for Dinara. Miss SBF and Scolios would have been other beneficiaries of this.

The third quarter of the draw had a major bearing on who would do especially well at BOTP. The matches between Dementieva and Henin – and particularly the one between Clijsters and Henin – were huge in terms of the end result. Both tlim and MacBorg had picked Henin to win the battle of the Belgians, and it made them the BOTP finalists on the day. It is interesting that neither the Men’s US Open champ nor the Women’s USO champ did that well at the Aus Open.. In fact, not many of the form hard courters did from there – well, apart from you-know-who..

There were a few other excellent performances. Both J-M Fan and VH were solid throughout the tournament, finishing strongly in 6th.

DN was one of the front-runners for so much of the tournament, but sadly for him fell away in the closing stages, where he made just 1 of the last 7 picks. By his own admission, he had gone with his heart (the aptly-named Venus!) rather than his head. DN shared 9th place with Jack, who was certainly one of the mavericks of the tournament. Now then, when Jack posted his entry for the pick ‘em, he did state that he also went with his heart rather than his head!! head versus heart playing quite a role in the final stages of this pic ‘em! However, maybe if Jack had gone with his heart more with the Chinese girls, then who knows where he would have finished up?

Sharing the 11th spot were cazza99 and mojo. Cazza had a very solid first BOTP, and seemed to have a dip in her picks in the quarter final stage, when none of her bottom-draw picks came up trumps – it was the same for mojo, coincidentally. Both were certainly in the running up until then.

To show just how tight things were in the pick ‘em, RoastLamb and LizziM were 13th and 14th in the pick ‘em, with just one less correct pick than BOTP winner tlim! Again, it goes back to the Justine v Kim outcome in particular. Such a narrow margin..

At the bottom of the table, poor Fitzy was firmly esconsed, who was unlucky with a few brave picks not going his way. There was certainly an element of luck to trying to pick the upsets. Who would have thought that Sharapova would have gone out in the first round, for example? Fitzy was in good company though – James4578, David, US Champ nevets, French Open champ Scotsguy and another strong CC predictor in Miss SBF! I would never have predicted that lineup in the lower regions of the table.

Well, I guess that I have rambled on enough here, and should round things off for now. I hope that you have enjoyed this pick ‘em, and that it has also enhanced your enjoyment of the Women’s Side of the Australian open.

Many thanks to everyone for taking part in the rollercoaster ride that this tournament has been! And finally, huge thanks to nevets, who went beyond the call of duty in helping me out when I was struggling for time to keep this ticking over, and when also I couldn’t access a pc – it was all very much appreciated and gratefully received.

I am thinking that the French Open will be a definite for the next BOTP. Over the next few weeks, I shall contact BOTB steven and see if he might be amenable to a WTA pick ‘em on his site. DN had also asked about a BOTP rankings system over the tournaments – so will look into that too.

I hope to see you again for the French Open – bye for now!

This post has been edited by NorthernLight: 31 January 2010 - 12:28 AM

[Nevets]

I did horribly badly but then again, I did badly in all competitions

Have to admit, I couldn't remember if I won the US Open or not!

Oh, and I'm never doubting you again, Serena!

Anyway, a big thank you for running a great competition, NL!

This post has been edited by Nevets: 31 January 2010 - 12:46 AM

[Big Al]

Bravo Tlim

Great comp , and no-one more surprised than me at nearly winning

[Dark_Necrofear™]

Tahnks guys, truly great fun and its even greater knowing that CC is grwing in the competitions stakes because we own BOTP!!!!! NL, your a star man.

Cant we do a BOTP for Miami at least.It is widely regarded as the "fifth" slam and it could be fun doing one outside of the slams.

[NorthernLight]

A couple of more screen shots to show how everyone progressed during the course of the tournament.

The first is everyone's positions in the BOTP table, day by day:

 BOTPbyDay.png (59.58K)
Number of downloads: 10

The second is my attempt to graph it - but I think that it looks way too busy!!!!

 BOTP_Graph.png (358.27K)
Number of downloads: 9

This post has been edited by NorthernLight: 31 January 2010 - 05:32 PM

[tlimvvo2max]

Thanks folks!

And many thanks in particular to NL for the enthusiastic dedication that goes into BOTP - I don't mind repeating that it really is much appreciated.


PS - Something of a contrast to my (worst ever) BOTB performance!