The Deuce Club, 8.6

By Heidi Kim, TW Contributing Writer

Will he or won't he?

That is the theme of the photo/post here at DC today.  Regular poster jb wrote to me, suggesting a little friendly competition here for the Olympic tennis.  This won't be so much a suicide pool as NCAA-type grid for the final eight, and we'll simply see who filters out to win at the top of the draw, with points for each correct prediction.  You can play men's, women's, or even doubles -- I quail slightly at all the counting I might be doing, but on the other hand, I can't just leave off doubles as the perennial wallflowers.

So post your picks in a clear format, and make sure to clearly indicate the final winner(s).  Ideally, last names only where possible, and hyphens or v./vs. between the pairups (e.g., Federer-Robredo, V. Williams vs. Li).  Remember, only the final eight in each!  Please post in this thread by this Sunday, when the tennis begins.

Drawsheets will be available here.

Incidentally, I was looking for a Blake practice photo to head this post, but as of Wednesday night, there wasn't one yet since (according to the Bryan brothers' blog) they've just gotten there.  I thought it would be fitting, as Blake is a first-time Olympian who was not having such a good year the last time the Olympics rolled around.

Hope you all enjoy the opening ceremonies, if you plan to watch.  Even if you're quite immune to Olympics fever, the stadium and "water cube" (aquatics center) are worth checking out from an architectural point of view.  The NY Times had pretty good articles on them here and here.  Definitely some of the most interesting Olympic (or other) architecture I've seen in a while.

As always, you can go off topic below, but please keep your draw posts separate.  And don't forget to keep emailing me photos and news for the Deuce Club.  We had a nice run of photos lately, and it would be great to keep it going.