Friday 13 November 2009

Woe Is Me

Earlier I mentioned the ATP Draw Challenge, and after a fairly decent start I'm afraid it's all gone to shit. Monday and Tuesday I was doing quite well, 7 points off the leaders fairly consistently, then Wednesday came... Wednesday was a big day, top 5 seeds in contention, their first matches, naturally you'd expect World #1 Roger Federer to manage to win through, right? Well he didn't and I had him in up to the semis, therefore I lost a lot of points on the great Swiss (coincidentally my faith in his countryman Stanislas Wawrinka to reach the 3rd round was ill placed.
 
Worse was to come on Thursday, Andy Murray, who I pipped to win (damn my foolish nationalistic tendancies!) was beaten by Radek Stepanek in a match he looked sure to win after raping the czech 6-1 in the first set, but it wasn't to be. BGy losing in the third round Andy will have cost me fully 60 points by the end of the tournament - D'oh!
 
With Murray and Federer gone my top half of the draw was fucked, I had only one match left in that half to gain any points - Gonzalez vs Del Potro. Although Del Potro won the US Open this year he under-performed greatly in Asia, thus I decided to give Gonzalez a shot. The first set went to tie-break which Del Potro looked sure to win taking a vast early lead, but Gonzalez battled back and took the set - my hopes stayed alive! It became apparent in the second set that both men were suffering - Gonzalez with a knee and Del Potro with his Abdomen. It seemed that Del Potro was suffering most and Gonzalez managed a break of serve and generated some Match Points, but Del Potro broke back and it went to tie-break. Gonzalez took the lead and again generated match points, but alas Del Potro rallied and took it. The prospect of another full set was obviously too much for Gonzalez knee and he retired from the match - DAMN!
 
So I have two men left in the entire tournament, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, I predicted them to both make the Semis and for Djokovic to make the final. As I type Djokovic is playing his QF with Robin Soderling, 1 set all on-serve in the 3rd, Nadal will play later.
 
But why does it matter now? Without a perfect draw there's no prize to be won, but there is still a competition on, between me and Helen!
 
Helen predicted Nadal to win the tournament, right now I have 46 points and she has 40, if Nadal reaches the final then she wins, if Djokovic reaches the final, I win. If neither of them reach the Semis, or if Nadal reaches the semis and loses, then I win.
 
It all hinges on Nadal! I need that Spaniard to lose!
 
freedoms_stain, Fault!, out.



 


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