2014 Slam Challenge - Wimbledon Edition

[El Dude]

Draws are out on Friday and the first round starts on Monday (I think!), so get those predictions in!

Here are the rules:

2014 SLAM PREDICTION CHALLENGE - RULES

• How to Play - Pick a Winner, Runner-up, two Semifinalists, four Quarterfinalists, one Dark Horse and one Wildcard candidate for each Slam.
• Points - 12 Winner, 8 Runner-up, 3 Semifinalist, 1 Quarterfinalist for a total of 30 possible. Note that points are not cumulative, but you do get points if a player finishes lower than what you picked (e.g. If you pick Djokovic to win but he's the runner-up, you still get 8 points; if you pick Murray to be the runner-up but he wins, you only get the 8 points you picked him for).
  
• Dark Horse - Gets points for whatever their final position is; they cannot have won a Slam within the last two calendar years, or eight Slams (thus if Federer doesn't win any Slams through Wimbledon this year, he could be picked as a Dark Horse at the US Open as his last Slam win was 2012 Wimbledon).
• Wildcard - Gets points as the Dark Horse, but cannot be ranked in the top 10 at the beginning of the tournament.
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• Tiebreakers - After the US Open will be handled by predictions for the World Tour Finals.
• Missing Slams - Members who want to join after the AO or miss a later Slam get a total number of points equal to the lowest score for the missed Slam, minus one point (For instance, if the lowest score for the AO is 14 and you missed participation, you start Roland Garros with 13 points)
• Late Penalty - You can make your picks without penalty until the first serve of Round 1 on Monday, January 13th. After that there will be a -3 point penalty per day, so if you're late by a day or two you still can accrue some decent points!

Here are the standing through two Slams:

42 Kieran
42 secrettennisjunkie
41 ftan
41 Moxie629
39 El Dude
37 britbox
37 fashionista
37 rahulpawar
34 crystalfire
34 Riotbeard
33 tented
31 Denisovich
30 TennisFanatic7
29 kstake2
29 Moose
29 nehmeth
28 fedfan
23 TsarMatt
21 1972Murat
18 Bounce It!
18 GoldenBoy
17 Luxilon Borg
15 rafanoy1992
15 The AntiPusher
15 askh
13 zalvar
12 GameSetAndMath

Some of those were only present for one round. Note that if you are joining the default starting points is 10, which is 1 less than the lowest point total for each tournament.

Good luck and have at it!

 

[tented]

Thanks for running the challenge again, Dude. It takes time to compile and keep track of everyone's picks and scores, so thank you for putting in the effort for us.

 

[TsarMatt]

Yay! I enjoyed the one for RG, despite not predicting too well. I think I'll go even worse for Wimbledon since it's a pretty unpredictable tournament, especially in the first week.

Thanks for this.

 

[El Dude]

Yay! I enjoyed the one for RG, despite not predicting too well. I think I'll go even worse for Wimbledon since it's a pretty unpredictable tournament, especially in the first week.

Thanks for this.

No problem, folks.

I think Wimbledon is going to see a huge separation in these rankings as it is so hard to predict, so you might have only a handful of people predicting well and the rest mediocre to poor - especially if there are any major upsets.

Adjusted for the draw:

W - Federer
F - Murray
SF - Nadal, Djokovic
QF - Ferrer, Berdych, Lopez, Nishikori
DH - Raonic
WC - Dimitrov

 

[Kieran]

I'm not placing any eggs in Gulbis basket this time. I think he'll have a poor Wimbledon...

 

[Riotbeard]

I will wait for the draw, but I am picking Novak for the W. Amazingly the number 1 seed will be flying a bit under the radar at this one, although I think other than Andy and Rafa, people don't quite know who to look at, even the favorites have serious question marks.

 

[isabelle]

Not sure that Stan and Daveeed can play, hope so

 

[ftan]

heard Novak had some wrist injury.. anyone has more info on tht

 

[Backhand_DTL]

He withdrew from an exhibition match today, saying something like "Sometimes the best preparation is not to play" and the media assumed he has problems with the wrist again. I don't think there is a quote from Novak where this assumption is confirmed to be true.

 

[Moxie]

I will wait for the draw, but I am picking Novak for the W. Amazingly the number 1 seed will be flying a bit under the radar at this one, although I think other than Andy and Rafa, people don't quite know who to look at, even the favorites have serious question marks.

Andy will surely be the most scrutinized, especially in the British press, but I don't see how Novak will be "under the radar." He's the #1 seed, and favorite, though rather by default. Which I don't mean at all rudely. But, since Nadal and Fed barely got out of the starting gates last year, and Andy is still a question mark since the back surgery, who else is there? Not sure what it means that they're talking about Djokovic's wrist again…unless it means we should all take our dark horse picks seriously.

 

[rahulpawar]

I don't want to be late like last time.

My Predictions :

W - Nadal
F - Murray
SFs - Federer, Djokovic
QFs - Nishikori, Ferrer, Wawrinka,Gulbis
Dark Horse - Berdych
Wildcard - Dimitrov

 

[britbox]

I will wait for the draw, but I am picking Novak for the W. Amazingly the number 1 seed will be flying a bit under the radar at this one, although I think other than Andy and Rafa, people don't quite know who to look at, even the favorites have serious question marks.

Andy will surely be the most scrutinized, especially in the British press, but I don't see how Novak will be "under the radar." He's the #1 seed, and favorite, though rather by default. Which I don't mean at all rudely. But, since Nadal and Fed barely got out of the starting gates last year, and Andy is still a question mark since the back surgery, who else is there? Not sure what it means that they're talking about Djokovic's wrist again…unless it means we should all take our dark horse picks seriously.

He might be the #1 seed but I wouldn't describe him as the favourite. At Wimbledon, he'd probably be my fourth pick. Would be interested to see the bookmakers odds.

 

[TennisFanatic7]

Winner - Murray
Final - Federer
Semi Final - Djokovic, Nadal
QFs - Berdych, Dimitrov, Lopez, Nishikori
Dark Horse - Raonic
Wildcard - Janowicz

 

[Kieran]

I'm gonna base my predictions on a dream I had. I still don't feel sure that Rafa will get to week 2 - let alone win it - but this is what I imagined:

Winner: Nadal
R-up: Dimitrov
Semis: Federer, Djokovic
QF: Nishi, Berdy, Murray, Isner

Dark Horse: Dimitrov
Wildcard: Nishi

 

[nehmeth]

Winner: Djokovic
Finalist: Federer
Semis: Raonic, Dimitrov
QF: Lopez, Gasquet, Berdych, Murray

WC: Gulbis
DH: Berdych

 

[El Dude]

Just a reminder for everyone to not pick a player twice. So Kieran, get Dimitrov out of either runner-up or dark horse.

 

[Kieran]

Just a reminder for everyone to not pick a player twice. So Kieran, get Dimitrov out of either runner-up or dark horse.

Ah! That narrows my options cos Nishi is gone too. Okay, so this:

Winner: Nadal
R-up: Dimitrov
Semis: Federer, Djokovic
QF: Nishi, Berdy, Murray, Isner

Dark Horse: Cilic
Wildcard: Lopez

 

[tented]

Winner: Djokovic
Finalist: Federer
Semis: Raonic, Dimitrov
QF: Lopez, Gasquet, Berdych, Murray

WC: Gulbis
DH: Dimitrov

Nehmeth's form isn't completed properly. He forgot about Nadal.

 

[nehmeth]

Winner: Djokovic
Finalist: Federer
Semis: Raonic, Dimitrov
QF: Lopez, Gasquet, Berdych, Murray

WC: Gulbis
DH: Dimitrov

Nehmeth's form isn't completed properly. He forgot about Nadal.

Do you think he'll make it past the first round this year??

 

[ftan]

Winner: Federer
Finalist: Nole
Semis: Murray, Raonic
QF: Lopez, Isner, Berdych, Cilic

WC: JJ
DH: Dimitrov


This is just a placeholder.. I don't want to lose 9 points again