THE VADER TROPHY! (Vader League 2012) (Page 3 of 26)

Intrepid Reporter "DARTH NEWS" writes his first column on The Vader Trophy for "2012"!!

"2011" WOODEN SPOONER IMPRESSIVE IN OPENING WEEK OF THE VADER TROPHY "2012"!

BACKHANDPASS has quickly made last year's shortened  Vader League season a distant memory as he impressed in the opening week of The Vader Trophy 2012, Backhandpass a.k.a BHP won two of the three opening tournaments and finished a close second in the third to end the opening week in 1ST position. BHP was awarded the Wooden Spoon in 2011 after finishing the inaugural Vader Trophy in eighth and bottom position and was installed as this season's 20-1 rank outsider by the Han Solo Betting Agency to win the competition in 2012.
BHP won the Brisbane tournament by being the only player to pick the eventual winner, Scotland's Andy Murray, he was also successful at winning in Chennai after being the only player to pick the top 4 seeds in the tournament.
In Doha he was edged out into second place by the defending Vader League Champion Tono, but only after tournament favourites Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both succumbed in the semifinals.
Backhandpasses early season strategy has seen him race out to an early lead in week 1 of the Vader Trophy and he currently holds a $114,940 lead over Tono in second spot.

TONO showed that he will again be in the hunt for another title this season after enjoying a solid first week in the opening three tournaments, he finished third in both the Brisbane and Chennai tournaments respectively, although his overall prizemoney won at those tournaments was considerably less than the eventual winner BHP.
Tono tasted his first tournament success for the new season in Doha where his key picks turned out to be Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Gael Monfils, Tsonga went on to eventually beat Monfils in the final which was enough to give Tono the win, albeit by a very slim margin over BHP, his good performance in Doha was enough to see Tono hold 2ND spot after week 1 of the competition. He currently holds a lead over Dragan of $106,280 heading into week 2.

DRAGAN had a very consistent first week in the competition finishing second to BHP in Brisbane and Chennai respectively and third behind Tono and BHP in Doha, his choice of Alexandr Dolgopolov helped him to finish in second place in Brisbane and his Janko Tipsarevic pick in Chennai was enough to earn him second spot in that tournament too. Dragan finished third in Doha with Monfils and Viktor Troicki being his main money making picks, his consistent performance in week 1 has seen him slip into 3RD spot on the leaderboard and he currently holds a lead of $91,205 over Arvis in fourth place.

ARVIS had a mixed first week finishing with a poor performance in Brisbane but he did better in both the Chennai and Doha tournaments which enabled him to take the 4TH spot in the competition's first week, he will be looking for a more consistent effort in week 2 but he does still hold a lead of $69,290 over Aiur in fifth place.

AIUR took a few risky picks in week 1 and unfortunately for him he didn't quite enjoy the success he was looking for, the normally consistent Aiur had disappointing results in both the Brisbane and Chennai tournaments, not picking eventual winner Milos Raonic in Chennai hurt his cause but he did do a little better in Doha to hold down 5TH spot heading into the second week, he currently has a lead of $44,265 over Wolmas in sixth place.

WOLMAS misjudged the closing time for picks in Brisbane and missed making any picks for that particular tournament which set him back immediately, his best result for the week came in Chennai but his performance in Doha let him down somewhat and was the main reason that he now finds himself in 6TH spot on the points table, his lead over Don and Crosscourt is currently $155,990.

DON and CROSSCOURT have yet to be heard from by any of the Vader competitors and both gentlemen failed to make their picks in any of the three tournaments in the opening week of the competition, it's early days still so all is not lost for either of them just yet, but it will be interesting to see if they jump in and start competing in week 2 of the Vader Trophy 2012.

Last edited by Tono (Jan. 9, 2012 6:00am)

I'm probably going to end up with the coveted wooden spoon by the time this month is done with.

Username    Winnings
backhandpass    $139265
Dragan    $84240
Tono     $60510
Aiur    $43825
Arvis    $41795

Thanks for the comments re the "Darth News" write up Arvis & Thomas!
Wasn't sure whether to continue doing them this season but I'm happy to continue doing it as long as all you guys in Vader keep enjoying them!!

Thomas I haven't been online much today so I didn't get your message regarding the Vader results in Brisbane until now sorry....I see that Dragan has gladly filled you in anyway regarding your request for the Brisbane results, good on ya Dragan!

Interesting picks in the Heineken Open in Auckland this week guys....5 of us have picked Verdasco....5 of us have picked Kohli....ALL of us have picked Ferrero, except BHP....and only our competition leader has decided to choose the hot favourite David Ferrer....I have a sneaky feeling there will be quite a few upsets in this tourney, Querrey, Young and Anderson are gone already, I'm hoping for my sake that Ferrero, Verdasco and/or Almagro don't join them in the next 24 hours!

Thanks BHP, will do!

I'm guessing you will be enjoying quite a few write ups this month mate due to your fast start in Vader!!

WOW.... well there goes another one out of the Heineken Open tourney in Auckland....Juan Carlos Ferrero had no answer for the household name of Benoit Paire!
Maybe I should have taken Bellucci after all ....oh well nevermind, I did think JCF had a pretty good draw but he will now be packing his bags for Melbourne!

I only caught the end of the match on Sky TV but this tall Frenchman looks to have quite a good game on him, I noticed on the ATP website that he is only 22 years old and was ranked 331 at the end of 2009 and 152 at the end of 2010...he just finished the 2011 season ranked 95 so he is still climbing the rankings....he might be one to keep an eye on this season perhaps!!

Last edited by Tono (Jan. 10, 2012 2:56am)

Glad to see ya back in it, Crosscourt!

LEAVE ME ALONE, TONO!!

That's it, I'm leaving and I'm not doing fantasy tennis with you guys anymore.

-Arvis

NO I AM MAD AT TONO! >:(
YOU ARE A POOPY-BUTT!
I DO NOT WANT A DRINK WITH ZHENG... Zheng... Zheng.... ahhhh, Zheng.  Why must we be apart? T_T

Anyways, that's enough of that.  You would have to TRY to make me mad, and even then it would be difficult for you.

Who here thinks someone will break Zucksters mark of $30,427,505?

-Arvis

Your not REALLY mad at me now Arvis....surely??

Maybe I didn't quite word my comments correctly....I meant a drink with some Zheng (Zing) in it to help you FEEL GOOD after your disappointing run of results this week, it was a play on words mate but I'm guessing you have realised that now.

So you think I'm a POOPY BUTT....I think I was being more of a SMART-BUTT than a POOPY one!
And I wasn't TRYING to make you mad Arvis, I was actually TRYING to make you laugh since you always give me a lot of laughs with your comments throughout the season!

I think Zucksters 30.4M winning prizemoney from last year will be beaten by a number of players this year....that's a good goal to aim for actually Arvis, I intend to be in the group who surpass it!! .....ok well maybe not after Big John Isner crashes out in Sydney

Last edited by Tono (Jan. 10, 2012 11:20pm)

Absolutely Scotty you are part of the Yoda Crew in GSFT!! ....I will email you the link so you can join before the Aussie Open otherwise you will be severely handicapped if you do not make any picks for Melbourne!!

Just remember that you need to make two lots of picks on the FTT site if you want to be in the Vader League and the main FTT competition, there is a link at the bottom of the screen to click on and make your picks for the FTT comp....any probs just yell out on here to one of us or flick me an email and you should be good to go!!

Welcome to the Dark Side!!

BHP I must say it's so good to have you back posting regularly after all your computer probs last year!

Hey BHP I just noticed that you & Scotty are the Jimmy Connors brothers in arms!!

Last edited by Tono (Jan. 11, 2012 2:22am)

TONO!  How could you think I was even a little serious?  "poopy-butt?"  COME ON!!!  THAT'S HILARIOUS!  And BHP's comment about it made it even more funny.
I was faking anger so you could reminisce about the good ol' days with old friends who have since "passed away."

Anyways, great to have Scotty join us at FantasyTennisTour.com!  Don't worry too much about being behind a couple weeks, these are all just 250 tourneys.  One good result at a Grand Slam will catch you right up.

Besides, after this week, I'll be in dead last and you'll be able to pass me easily.  Out of two tournaments (8 players) 7 of my guys lost in their first match.  I ONLY have Phillip Kohlschreiber left.  That is a level of failure that I believe will remain unmatched for the rest of the year.  And it's only WEEK TWO! T_T

-Arvis