The Picks Game: Round of 16

Wow.

Let me just repeat myself.  Wow.

We had over 70 people submit picks for the Mens and Womens Singles at the R32 stage.  And some very, very impressive picking was done.  The Tribe overall went 10/5 on the Men and 13/3 on the Women - overall 23/31 (Nalbandian/Monfils were picked by 28 each - a 50%/50% pick is a coin flip, not scored to the Tribe).  So the Tribe is currently picking at 74%.  Not bad.  But some did better...

Among our leaders so far (remember, this is like Day 1 of a golf tournament - a lot will happen before the last putt is holed, or overhead is put away):

Percentage leads:

Men:  Sahadev (9/0), codepoke (8/0), patrick and JTContinental (7/0)

Women: Sahadev (11/0), Dragonfly (10/0), patrick and GSte (8/0), Anil, jb and ET (not deV) (13/1)

Overall: Sahadev (20/0) (!), patrick and Split Infinitive (15/0), GSte (18/1).

Wins leads:

Men:  Ali C (14), doowaadaddynz, mic, Luke, Eric, mmmm8, Dunlop Maxply and ginger (13)

Women:  Anil, jb, ET (not DeV), Luke, Eric and lilly potter (13)

Overall:  Luke, Eric and Ali C (26), mic, ET (not deV) and mmmm8 (25)

So, are you ready for R16?

A quick recap - the rules for the tournament are posted HERE.  You don't have to pick any match (if you're superstitious, or would like to avoid thinking about any player).  But I do encourage you to pick more than the lower cut off of 15 total.

What if you missed R32 - can you still join in?  Yes, we're delighted to have you.  Read the rules, consult with your ancestors, and start picking.

Have I made a mistake in my sums?  Should the glory be yours?  Post a comment below, or eMail me, and we'll sort it out.

BTW - I'll take a dim view if some of our leaders decide to "rest on their laurels" and hope to "win" by not picking again.  Just as a good first round doesn't win the tournament in golf or tennis, it won't here.  Besides, we're all cheering you on, and hoping you'll let us in on the ingredients in your "special sauce."

Now, This Is Very Important.  Please do follow the instructions about how to post your picks:  the following is the preferred form:

Djokovic 1 - Verdasco

copied from the list below, with a 1 entered after the name of the player you think will win (with a space before the 1, please).

Please do NOT do any of these:

Djokovic - Verdasco (DJOKO - my Man!)

Djokovic1 - Verdasco

Djokovic 1 vs Verdasco

You get the drill.  Why am I so, er, picky about this?  To get your picks into my compilation spreadsheet (geeky technical aside) I need to copy and paste directly from the comments into Excel, and my formulas only recognize the correct layout.  So, if Sylvia and Cathleen are going to see anything of their husband/dad this weekend, your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Oh, and if any of you are interested in boning up on some of the decision theory behind what's going on, you could bone up on the Recognition Heuristic.  Fun stuff.

Well, that was a lot of ado.  Here, now, are the matches for R16:

Men

Federer  -  Youzhny
Robredo  -  Volandri
Davydenko  -  Nalbandian
Canas  -  Monaco
Baghdatis  -  Andreev
Djokovic  -  Verdasco
Bjorkman  -  Moya
Hewitt  -  Nadal

Women

Henin  -  Bammer
Safina  -  S Williams
Jankovic  -  Bartoli
Garbin  -  Vaidisova
Ivanovic  -  Garrigues
Peer  -  Kuznetsova
Safarova  -  Chakvetadze
Schnyder  -  Sharapova

-- Andrew