--Ptenisnet, Contributing Writer
Morning Everyone,
I don't know about you, but this little tournament down under has been wrecking my sleep schedule (or the lack there of). It's probably the one tournament where I keep wishing that my favourite players get day matches. It's gotten to the point where I am getting concerned looks when I set my alarm for 3 A.M.
As you all know, our friends over at Talk About Tennis organize a suicide pool for every grand slam event. This time was no different. And, even better, there was a sub contest open only to TWers. I really wanted to enter it, but missed out, owing to a combination of an ad hoc trip to DC, miscalculating the drive back and a little volume on I-95. I arrived, more or less, in time for the first ball to be struck and just too late.
Whereas the TAT SP contest is in still in full flow, it is, sadly, over for TW. The last of our contestants were eliminated on Monday. Our ranks were severely decimated on the Women's side - thanks mostly to Bammer (surprise!) and Safina (surprise, surprise!). We eventually ended up in a 3 way tie with mariej, nectar and lbk77 all bowing out on the otherwise reliable pick of Serena Williams over Jelena Jankovic.
Nectar, in fact, pulled a double by also outlasting everyone else on the Men's Pool before eventually betting on Ferrero against the Spanish Honey Badger.
So congratulations to mariej, Nectar and lbk77 for the win.
While I do know mariej (our POTY for 2006), I am not sure I have seen comments from Nectar or Lbk77. It would be nice to hear from you guys. So, feel welcome to post comments.
Here's the path our hero(ine)s took through the draw before they came up against a dead end.
Women's Draw:
lbk77: Davenport - Srebotnik - Peer - Radwanska - Vaidisova - Hantuchova - Sharapova - Serena
marieJ: Medina Garrigues - Cornet - Azarenka - Mirza - Vaidisova - Hantuchova - Jankovic - Serena
nectar: Davenport - Mirza - Peer - Hantuchova - Vaidisova - Petrova - Jankovic - Serena
Men's Draw:
Nectar â Gasquet - Berdych - Andreev - Blake - Tsonga - Ferrer - Nieminen - Ferrero
Lastly, here's something neat that a couple of Aussies did:Crossing The Ditch .