Smitty's French Open

[kickserv]

3. i just looked him up. per atptour.com, he reached a career-best ranking of 986 on 4/18/94. so he was top 1,000! travis boyd. two things i remember... he had a 2-handed forehand and he was a righty, but played a few games lefty against me once and still kicked my ass.

4) hanfmann is yesterday's news. he may fall behind sinner in my all-time yannick/yannik rankings.



nice to hear you're aboard the zhizhen train. you think he has a shot against ruud, assuming they both win?.

did you happen to catch that monfils/baez match yesterday? hell of an effort, but hard to believe monfils will have anything left in the tank for rune.

- 986 in the world back in 1994 is really good, so he was legit. I mean kickserv never cracked the top 1000 in singles anytime in the 1990's, so if you do better then kickserv you are fucking awesome:scared Did you know back in 2008 he was the assistant women's tennis coach at Siena, I bet ya didn't know that. And did you also know at one time back when he was living in Stephentown, N.Y. he owned "The Majestic Whitetail" taxidermy shop, yeah I bet ya didn't know that either. Now if you really want your mind blown, his last ever pro tennis match was in Little Rock Arkansas where he lost to David Critchley. I know that name well, he used to live about 15 minutes away from me, I played him many times in juniors and I even played doubles with him once. So yeah how about that for some "full circle" shit right therex27:

- How dare you dismiss Hanfmann, how friggen dare you:nooo:

- zhizhen will win the French Open and will not lose one more game, maybe 1 game in the final, maybe.

- Yes, I saw that match, great stuff, Monfils will lose quick now, his body is done.

 

[Smitty]

pretty funny. travis was, of course, light years ahead of the rest of us. the fact that he never made it onto the regular tour was our eye-opener as to how good the guys on tour are. his biggest handicap was his height. or lack thereof. anyway, siena just happens to be my alma mater.

i hear the entire men's bracket just conceded the tournament to zhizhen. which means i won't cash in on my bet for him to win the tournament at +45,000.

 

[kickserv]

pretty funny. travis was, of course, light years ahead of the rest of us. the fact that he never made it onto the regular tour was our eye-opener as to how good the guys on tour are. his biggest handicap was his height. or lack thereof. anyway, siena just happens to be my alma mater.

i hear the entire men's bracket just conceded the tournament to zhizhen. which means i won't cash in on my bet for him to win the tournament at +45,000.

1) I heard that when Travis was at Siena every single day he visited your statue and prayed to it. He also made sure that every member of the Siena women's tennis team visited your statue at least once a month.

2. I received word that all the men's events at the French Open have been cancelled, it turns out Zhizhen Zhang is just too good, and the other players just decided to give up and not even bother to compete. Even the boys singles and doubles events have been cancelled, the teenagers knew they'd never be as good as Zhizhen Zhang, so they all just gave up.

 

[Smitty]

smitty = greatest tennis bettor on the planet. or maybe i'm just a clay court specialist.



still not a great tournament without paula badosa. i hope she has a speedy recovery.

 

[Smitty]

1) I heard that when Travis was at Siena every single day he visited your statue and prayed to it. He also made sure that every member of the Siena women's tennis team visited your statue at least once a month.

i always liked travis

 

[kickserv]

smitty = greatest tennis bettor on the planet. or maybe i'm just a clay court specialist.

Smitty wins a couple tennis bets and now he's hammer1:mj07::facepalm:

 

[Smitty]

alright, feels like we're due for a "market correction", so small bets....

davidovich fokina to win at least one set -125
DF to win at least 2 sets +240

we've come this far with zhizhen... and i'm flush with francs... don't love it, but fuck it.

zhizhen to win at least one set -130
zhizhen to win at least 2 sets +205
zhizhen to win the match +425
first set over 9.5 games +110
first set over 10.5 games +260

hopefully i can avoid going 0-7

 

[Smitty]

Smitty wins a couple tennis bets and now he's hammer1:mj07::facepalm:

a couple??? WAY more than that. like 10. or maybe even 12. :00hour

 

[kickserv]

a couple??? WAY more than that. like 10. or maybe even 12. :00hour

:facepalm:

 

[kickserv]

davidovich fokina to win at least one set -125
DF to win at least 2 sets +240
zhizhen to win at least one set -130
zhizhen to win at least 2 sets +205
zhizhen to win the match +425
first set over 9.5 games +110
first set over 10.5 games +260

hopefully i can avoid going 0-7

Well, ya went 2-5 (-130 odds and +110 odds winners), so not a complete disaster.:kiss:

#lookonthebrightside

 

[Smitty]

Well, ya went 2-5 (-130 odds and +110 odds winners), so not a complete disaster.:kiss:

#lookonthebrightside

just like the song at the end of Life of Brian... always look on the bright side... of life.

i didn't see any of the match. i assume zhizhen broke a leg after the first set and tried to gut it out for me. hell of a fella, that zhizhen.

and DF gave djokovic a hell of a run for the first 2 sets. he played great while also having WAY too many unforced errors. oh well.

not sure how much i'll bet this tournament, but rooting hard for alcaraz to win.

and now i'm waiting to bet against tsitsipas at wimbleton.

 

[kickserv]

i didn't see any of the match. i assume zhizhen broke a leg after the first set and tried to gut it out for me. hell of a fella, that zhizhen.

He lost his left leg and went blind in one eye, yet still almost won, it was inspiring to watch.

 

[Smitty]

i am inspired just reading your recap.

so inspired, that i'm trying my own parlay...

musetti to win a set
ruud
zverev
rune
+475

hell, round robin those bitches, too. gotta hit at least 3.

dammit, i'm out of control. also adding another parlay, starting with those 4 selections plus...

muchova
sabalenka
jabeur
+973

also, a 6-leg parlay... every one of those minus musetti.
+496

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

:0003

 

[kickserv]

:0003

:thefinger

 

[kickserv]

also, a 6-leg parlay... every one of those minus musetti.
+496

Lorenzo Musetti cost ya the parlays, but you still have one left because you dropped him for the last one. so yep, there is a bright side:0053

 

[Smitty]

Lorenzo Musetti cost ya the parlays, but you still have one left because you dropped him for the last one. so yep, there is a bright side:0053

hey, i'm still alive for a shit round robin, too. even if it hits, i lost money on it.

2 down, 4 to go.

while i didn't see any of the match after the first set, just based on the results, that's an impressive win for alcaraz. we'll see how he handles tsitsipas. i feel like they really screwed alcaraz on the draw. he definitely got the tougher path.

 

[kickserv]

i feel like they really screwed alcaraz on the draw. he definitely got the tougher path.

Just so you know..........

All draws at Grand Slams are drawn (random numbered balls pulled) by three different players. Two Main Draw players and one from the Qualifying Draw, there, now ya know:0008

 

[Smitty]

ha. is that how they slot the unseeded players?

are the seeded players seriously random? i mean, they're obviously not entirely random. they make sure 1 would play 2 in the finals, if both advance. but the rest certainly aren't slotted how they would be in a normal tournament. in theory, in the quarters, #1 should play #8 (or someone with a worse seeding, if there was an upset). and yet, alcaraz is playing #5 in the quarters. makes no sense.

 

[kickserv]

ha. is that how they slot the unseeded players?

are the seeded players seriously random? i mean, they're obviously not entirely random. they make sure 1 would play 2 in the finals, if both advance. but the rest certainly aren't slotted how they would be in a normal tournament. in theory, in the quarters, #1 should play #8 (or someone with a worse seeding, if there was an upset). and yet, alcaraz is playing #5 in the quarters. makes no sense.

At Grand Slams Men's Singles............

- 3 Players do the drawing (and the seeded slots), you also must have two players in attendance to be "a witness".

- There are 32 seeds in a 128 draw.

- #1 seed goes on Line 1, #2 seed goes on Line #128

- There are 8 different spots in the draw where 25-32 can go
- There are 8 different spots in the draw where 17-24 can go
- There are 8 different spots in the draw where 9-16 can go
- Seeds 3 and 4 can only go in two different spots
- Seeds 5 and 6 can only go in two different spots
- Seeds 7 and 8 can only go in two different spots

With all the above in play here are the "worst case" scenarios spots for the Top Seeds if all 32 seeds made the Round of 32's.......

Round of 32's.....1 could play 25, 2 could play 26, 3 could play 27 and 4 could play 28
Round of 16's.....1 could play 13, 2 could play 14, 3 could play 15 and 4 could play 16

And let's say all 8 seeds made the QF's..........

#1 could play #5
#2 could play #6
#3 could play #8
#4 could play #7

In Semi Finals obviously #1 would play #3 or #4 and #2 would play #3 or #4

After all seeds are put in their slots, the player representatives go top to bottom (or bottom to top) drawing in the remaining names (usually "poker chips" with names of players on them from a bag). Along with the player representatives and witnesses, one representative from the ITF (usually a rules official) and the Tournament Ref is there to watch the proceedings.



Note: "Back in the Day" when there were only 16 seeds, there was almost no "randomness" for the seeds. In Round of 16's, #15 or #16 would play #1 or #2, and #3 and #4 would play #14 and #13 and so on and so on. And in QF's it would be #1 vs #7/#8 and #2 vs #7/#8 and so on.

The "back in the day/old school" way of doing the draw rules were changed in 2001. I myself didn't mind when they added the 32 seeds, but I think the rule where #1 could play #25 in the Round of 16's and even number 5 in the QF's is silly.