#quarterfinalists

[which-is-the-very-best]

🎊Your Quarter Finalists!🎉

Congrats! The quarter finals start tomorrow!

Edit: well looks like I accidentally hit am instead of pm on this when I scheduled it 😅😅 my bad!! Polls still start around 3pm EST!

[ditomarsudi]

UNITED keep going! Come on lads! #mempengbanget #worldcup #fifa #quarterfinalists #football #comeonyoureds #ggmu #mufc #oldtrafford (at Old Trafford) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl7_gxuru2C/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[classicslesbianopinions]

when the polls are over do people want like. a four-way who would win poll between the semifinalists? like... if you put all of them in a ring?

[bugcrimesbracket]

[catonatrain]

im still so happy that we momoi and muku managed to win the pink hair swag tourney :] just in general tumblr polls have been fun for me to either write lil essays or draw pictures of my favs -- and i focus mostly on kuroko no basket charas for them

so i just think its sweet how some of us who all enjoy participating in our democratic duty for our silly guys got to come together like i know most people dont know that some a3! fans support knb in polls and vice versa but i hope more ppl do now !! its very sweet to see ppl share their love for charas

[crossovershipstournament]

CROSSOVER SHIPS TOURNAMENT BRACKET: ROUND FOUR

And with that, the tournament is officially halfway over! It was inevitable that I had to start moving names back, so they didn't start overlapping and also so the chart was a little more legible. So our quarterfinalist matchups are:

Webby Vanderquack (Ducktales 2017)/Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls) VS Max Goof (Disney)/Yakko Warner (Animaniacs)

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How To Train Your Dragon)/Jack Frost (Rise of the Guardians) VS Dimentio (Super Paper Mario)/Jevil (Deltarune)

Megaman (Megaman)/Pit (Kid Icarus) VS Wirt (Over the Garden Wall)/Dipper Pines (Gravity Falls)

Angus McDonald (The Adventure Zone)/Shigeo Kageyama (Mob) (Mob Psycho 100) VS Huey Duck (Ducktales 2017)/Wakko Warner (Animaniacs)

Ough, we're really getting into the thick of it now! No separate sides this round since we're doing to four matchups now, and all of them will drop tomorrow around 12-1pm PST (depending on when I'm done with work). Change of plans, the brackets will drop sometime in the next few days, probably closer to the end of the week and likely around 12-1pm.

[noctswife]

i want. ffxiv job/class quest npc bracket. Partially bc I want quarterfinalist foulques and partially bc I want to see those padjali bitches get destroyed

[hotvintagepoll]

Congrats to the ultimate winner of the Hot & Vintage Movie Men Tournament, Mr. Toshiro Mifune! May he live happily and well where the sun always shines, enjoying the glories of a battle hard fought.

A loving farewell to all of our previous contestants, who are now banished to the shadow realm and all its dark joys and whispered horrors—I hear there's a picnic on the village green today. If you want to remember the fallen heroes, you can find them all beneath the cut.

What happens next? I'll be taking a break of two weeks to rest from this and prep for the Hot & Vintage Ladies Tournament. I'll still be around but only minimally, posting a few last odes to the hot men before transitioning into a little early ladies content, just like I did with this last tournament. The submission form for the Hot & Vintage Ladies tournament will remain up for one more week (closing February 21st), so get your submissions in for that asap! Once the form closes, there will be one more week of break. The first round of the Hot & Vintage Ladies Tournament will be posted on February 29th, as Leap Year Day seems like a fitting allusion to leaping into these ladies' arms.

Thanks for being here! Enjoy the two weeks off, and send me some great propaganda.

In order of the last round they survived—

ROUND ONE HOTTIES:

Richard Burton

Tony Curtis

Red Skelton

Keir Dullea

Jack Lemmon

Kirk Douglas

Marcello Mastroianni

Jean-Pierre Cassel

Robert Wagner

James Garner

James Coburn

Rex Harrison

George Chakiris

Dean Martin

Sean Connery

Tab Hunter

Howard Keel

James Mason

Steve McQueen

George Peppard

Elvis Presley

Rudolph Valentino

Joseph Schildkraut

Ray Milland

Claude Rains

John Wayne

William Holden

Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

Harold Lloyd

Charlie Chaplin

John Gilbert

Ramon Novarro

Slim Thompson

John Barrymore

Edward G. Robinson

William Powell

Leslie Howard

Peter Lawford

Mel Ferrer

Joseph Cotten

Keye Luke

Ivan Mosjoukine

Spencer Tracy

Felix Bressart

Ronald Reagan (here to be dunked on)

Peter Lorre

Bob Hope

Paul Muni

Cornel Wilde

John Garfield

Cantinflas

Henry Fonda

Robert Mitchum

Van Johnson

José Ferrer

Robert Preston

Jack Benny

Fredric March

Gene Autry

Alec Guinness

Fayard Nicholas

Ray Bolger

Orson Welles

Mickey Rooney

Glenn Ford

James Cagney

ROUND TWO SWOONERS:

Dick Van Dyke

James Edwards

Sammy Davis Jr.

Alain Delon

Peter O'Toole

Robert Redford

Charlton Heston

Cesar Romero

Noble Johnson

Lex Barker

David Niven

Robert Earl Jones

Turhan Bey

Bela Lugosi

Donald O'Connor

Carman Newsome

Oscar Micheaux

Benson Fong

Clint Eastwood

Sabu Dastagir

Rex Ingram

Burt Lancaster

Paul Newman

Montgomery Clift

Fred Astaire

Boris Karloff

Gilbert Roland

Peter Cushing

Frank Sinatra

Harold Nicholas

Guy Madison

Danny Kaye

John Carradine

Ricardo Montalbán

Bing Crosby

ROUND THREE SMOKESHOWS:

Marlon Brando

Anthony Perkins

Michael Redgrave

Gary Cooper

Conrad Veidt

Ronald Colman

Rock Hudson

Basil Rathbone

Laurence Olivier

Christopher Plummer

Johnny Weismuller

Clark Gable

Fernando Lamas

Errol Flynn

Tyrone Power

Humphrey Bogart

ROUND 4 STUNGUNS:

James Dean

Cary Grant

Gregory Peck

Sessue Hayakawa

Harry Belafonte

James Stewart

Gene Kelly

Peter Falk

QUARTERFINALIST VOLCANIC TOWERS OF LUST:

Jeremy Brett

Vincent Price

James Shigeta

Buster Keaton

SEMIFINALIST SUPERMEN:

Omar Sharif

Paul Robeson

FINALIST FANTASIES:

Sidney Poitier

Toshiro Mifune

and ok, sure, here's the shadow-bracket-style winner's portrait of Toshiro Mifune.

[m-ultraarticles]

Milos Raonic makes long-awaited comeback at tournament van Rosmalen, Djokovic quarter-finalist in Rome | Tennis

The Rosmalen grass tournament will be the place of the Canadian Milos Raonic’s long-awaited return to tennis next month. The 32-year-old former number 3 in the world played his last game almost two years ago. The 2016 Wimbledon finalist struggled with injuries for a long time and, according to the organization of the Libéma Open, is now using his ‘protected ranking’ to participate at the…

[carolynbridgetkennedy]

Grateful to be nominated for Best Actress in an Indie Film at New York Film Awards for my role as”Evelyn” in my micro short comedy film “Shrew”. The film is also a Quarter-Finalist (Top 100 Projects) and nominated for Best Microfilm! 🎥💕 Thanks to my talented co-star and friend @mileslogancooper 🤗 @lafilmawards @therichardmcrae #actor #actress #actorslife #actorlife #filmmaker #writer #producer #losangeles #hollywood #shortfilm #quarterfinalist #bestactress #nominated #filmfestival #womeninfilm #comedy #shrew #womenincomedy (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/CngJqCmLxbQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[riafendpinup]

Another win for my Screenplay POWDER! Made it to the Quarter-Finals of @shorescripts Feature contest (Thriller) in the top 1% on @coverfly 🙏🏻🙌🏻 Beyond happy! Now we wait for Semi Finalists announcement! #feature #quarterfinalist #screenplay #thriller #screenwriter #horror #coverfly #shorescripts (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLOgLgofYA/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[copperbadge]

[ID: Two images each headed "The Comments Section Cup: 80s Anthem Edition" showing a sports-team style bracket of songs that have been voted on; the quarterfinalists, as listed below, are shown in larger print.]

As I have documented previously, pop star Robbie Williams is holding an 80s Anthem Cup on his Insta to determine the best 80s Anthem. Here's the results of the first round, so I thought I'd run it here on Tumblr and see how we match up.

You can't put more than one poll in a post, so I'm gonna throw all these songs into a single poll; vote your top and we'll see where we end up.

And in case you need a refresher, or an education:

Islands In The Stream

Wake Me Up Before You Go Go

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Take On Me

Never Gonna Give You Up

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Karma Chameleon

Purple Rain

[whumpofalltime]

friends, enemies, lurkers, we've made it to the

Whump Of All Time Finals!

What's the whumpiest whump of all time? Help us decide!

Find links and propaganda under the cut. Quarterfinalist and later match-ups are untagged, so your votes and reblogs matter! Make sure you click through to the main blog to find the run-off poll to crown third place, as well!

ROTK:

(spider attack, rescue)

"The Lord of The Rings, when Frodo gets bitten by a giant spider and left for dead by Sam at the end of The Two Towers, and then when Sam finds him in The Return of the King being held prisoner and whipped by an orc."

The Young Blood Chronicles (Save Rock and Roll's music videos, Fall Out Boy):

(link)

"Everyone gets bloodied, bruised, beaten up, tortured, rescued, limbs are amputated - it's brutal. Alone Together is particularly strong."

sorry for being late, but you want YBC propaganda? then you're getting YBC propaganda. I know you're a FOB fan, but I will be writing this for the benefit of those who don't know what YBC is, for better propaganda purposes! and yeah this is gonna be LONG. sorry.

So! The Youngblood Chronicles (shortened to YBC) is a series of 11 music videos made by the band Fall Out Boy, for their album Save Rock And Roll (you know this album, it's the one with My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark on it). The whole thing is quite short, less than fifty minutes long (even shorter if you don't count the uncut version's credits!!), and every single music video has some element of whump in it. This propaganda is gonna break down each individual music vid, and at i'll also talk a little bit about the irl context the album was written in, and why even THAT can be a little bit whumpy if you're insane like me!

(note: i'm going in the original release order over the uncut order, hence why i'm starting with MSKWYDITD instead of The Phoenix)

My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark: Arguably the least whump-y out of all of them, but man, seeing all of Fall Out Boy's discography and memorabilia be burnt while people are dancing around the destruction? Man, when you know the real life stuff (the reception the band had in 2009, leading to them to take a three year hiatus)... and at the end, you see four guys bound in the back of a van!! And that van is getting burnt!! Burn everything you love and burn the... ashes.

The Phoenix: NOW here's the first of MANY whump tastes you'll get. Patrick Stump, the singer/cutie of the band, gets kidnapped, tied to a chair, has his hand CHOPPED OFF and mailed to his bandmate/best friend Pete Wentz, then gets tied down and utterly tortured by women who are laughing at his misery the entire time, getting prodded and stabbed by tools for... well, you'll see. By the end of the video, Pete and the other two members of FOB (Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley) have been kidnapped by these mysterious women too, with Pete specifically getting kidnapped by the blonde woman he was in bed with when Patrick's hand got delivered to him. If you enjoy cute boys getting tied down, covered in blood, and writhing around like worms while getting tortured... well you'll enjoy all of YBC but specifically you'll enjoy this!! I did :D! The war is won, before it's begun, release the doves, surrender love...

Young Volcanoes: Good news, FOB has been reunited! Bad news, by the women who dismembered Patrick! And now all the band members are tied to chairs, hooked up to IVs full of god knows what types of drugs, and blindfolded (all except Patrick). They are then forced to drink, snort hard drugs, and are force fed Patrick's organs! Yep, all four of them are forced to eat their lead singer's guts, and are so fucking drugged up they don't even realize what's happening (and now you know what the women were doing to him in the last mv, and you even get a nice little shot of the hack job of stitching him back up)!! Patrick hallucinates everyone having fun, but of course, at the end, all of them are knocked out because of the drugs. Americana, exotica, do you wanna feel a little beautiful baby?

Alone Together: This is the song the OG propaganda mentioned, and for good reason. All four of them are shipped off into little personalized torture rooms, and, well, tortured! Pete is able to break out and even steals the hook from the girl who was torturing him, but little does he know that'll be his own undoing... also, in general, this song has some whumpy elements, specifically the line "my heart is like a stallion/they love it more when it's broke-in"... but notice how easy it is to hear "broke-in" as "broken"! At the end of the video, Pete is at least able to find Patrick (Joe and Andy have NOT been having a good time, either!! But sadly, they aren't found by Pete, but Pete DOES find Big Sean), and is even able to attach the hook to the stump (ha!) where his hand used to be. But something is clearly wrong with Patrick now. His eyes are yellow, and as the song ends, we hold on him, sneering and twitching. This is the road to ruin - and we're started at the end...

The Mighty Fall: First off if you say this is the worst song off of SRAR I will hunt you for sport. OKAY ANYWAYS, chronologically this comes after MSKWYDITD, and yeah, the four guys are the members of FOB. Pete is able to free himself with Patrick's new hook hand, and is able to get the other three out while Pete is hacking up a lung from the fire they just barely escaped. But they're not done getting their shit rocked yet. A gang of children show up (the leader being the kid Patrick waved at right before he was kidnapped back in the Phoenix MV), and proceed to separate them and beat the living shit out of them. The leader kid who's chasing Patrick plays something on a boombox... which triggers Patrick to go yellow-eyed again (from here on out i'll call it "going Youngblood" or "Youngblood self"). It was confirmed in the commentary track that ANY music would cause him to go Youngblood. And knowing Patrick IRL fucking loves to create/compose music... yeah! Take something he loves and turn it into something that drives him insane!! I'm normal!! And also the irl parallel you could draw to his solo career doing the same thing to him (on a less uh Dramatic level but you know)!!! Ouch!!!! Big Sean is able to save Patrick, but at the cost of his own life (and a killer rap verse... HELL YEAH I'M A DICK GIRL, ADDICTED TO YOU). Oh, how the mighty fall in love...

Just One Yesterday: The last vestiges of comfort you're gonna get for a WHILE. The four are separated, getting even more beaten up, Pete vomits up a snake, Andy gets his shit rocked by a homeless guy, Joe has to use white sheets as a makeshift tourniquet bc his leg got fucked up in The Mighty Fall MV, and Patrick is picked up by a kind stranger (hi Foxes! you have a very pretty voice! PLEASE KEEP YOUR HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL!). And finally, finally we get a hope spot. Fall Out Boy is reunited (the part where Andy just grabs onto Patrick's arm, in disbelief they're both alive... augh!!! AUGH!!!!), and for a moment, it seems they've been delivered to a hospital... before Foxes' eyes go completely black, looking at Patrick... and turns on the radio. She's able to trigger the Youngblood. And now Patrick is gone. The other three scramble into the hospital, Patrick not far behind, determined to kill them to stop the noise in his head. If Heaven's grief brings Hell's reign, then I'd trade all my tomorrows for just one yesterday...

Where Did The Party Go: Patrick, now fully consumed by the Youngblood brainwashing, is now stalking his bandmates in a hospital. Patrick is seeing visions of the hospital as an abandoned party, Andy has to painfully disinfect the wounds he's gotten, Pete is able to call for the police, and Joe... oh, poor Joe. He barricades himself into a room, but not well enough. Patrick finds him, and kills him, slitting his throat with the hook hand, showing no remorse at all... until Andy and Pete find them. The Youngblood wears off, and Patrick looks to what he's done, and is horrified at what he's done to his friend. And, bad news for him, the police are here, ready to arrest the murderer. All Andy and Pete can do is watch as tears roll down Patrick's eyes. And for the extra IRL context, this was the first song written for the album that made Pete and Patrick realize they had to get FOB back together... so lets match that with a music video where the member who helped get the band together in the first place dies. By the hands of the kid he found. Let's fade away together, one dream at a time...

Death Valley: Joe gets... uh, a little comfort? I mean, he thinks he's getting sent to heaven but goes to hell, buuuuut I think doing drugs in rock and roll hell with Tommy Lee is actually a pretty sweet deal, better than the deal the other three got! Pete and Andy are being interrogated while Patrick is in a jail cell. We find out that the cult that kidnapped them, Silence the Noise, is lead by Pete's girlfriend from WAAAAY back in the Phoenix MV, Courtney Love. And at the end of the MV... Patrick is bailed out of jail by Silence the Noise. They have him again. And this time, they're not gonna let him walk out until he's fully under their control. 'Cause tonight it's just fire alarms and losing you...

Rat a Tat: Silence the Noise has Patrick, and they utterly brainwash him, A Clockwork Orange style, with electroshock stimulation to keep him from looking away or closing his eyes, until there is nothing left. Patrick Stump does not exist anymore. Only the Youngblood, pliant under the control of Silence the Noise, tasked to destroy what he once loved; music. Andy dies at the hands of the cult, and now Pete has to protect a briefcase, the thing that got them into this mess, and keep it away from Silence the Noise, all while his best friend hunts him down. Are you ready for another bad poem?

Miss Missing You: THE WHUMPIEST OF THE WHUMP. What if we were best friends but you've been driven insane and I know the only way to stop you is to kill you and it was my fault you got into this mess and I was the one who gave you the weapon that will be my own undoing. What if we both died at the same time. What if we died, both of us failing the mission we had before us. What if that was a reference to one of their first music videos. What if this song was originally written for Patrick's solo album but he realized it was more of a Fall Out Boy song so it was scrapped until now. What if there's a legit argument to be made that half the lyrics for this song was written by Patrick. What if we were both boys. Grips walls, yeha i'm normal. If you don't watch ANY other music vid, watch Miss Missing You. Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger. The person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger.

Save Rock And Roll: And our final track gives us a final bit of comfort. Patrick is able to overcome the Youngblood, and gets into heaven, where all of FOB is finally, finally reunited. God (aka Elton John) gives them new instruments and brings them back to earth, so they can do what they love; play music together. Which just so happens to release people from the control of Silence the Noise! But, because we can't have nice things, a cult within Silence the Noise got a hold of the briefcase, and summoned a spirit that starts to kill everyone. FOB stands together, and blasts the evil spirit, the blood coming up to the gates of heaven and covering Elton John in it. And... that's how it ends. No true resolution. Just Elton John covered in blood, as the song fades out. Oh, no! Wherever I go, go! Trouble seems to follow! I only plugged in to save rock and roll!

UH. AGAIN I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LENGTH. but i really wanted to express just how much WHUMP they manage to fit into less than fifty minutes, all backed by an amazing album colored by the three years they were apart. colored by how they grew, colored by how bad the hiatus was for Patrick specifically, colored by how Confessions of a Pariah got Pete to reach out to help him, and this album came out of it, Fall Out Boy came back out of it, and now here we are, ten years later, with the title track being performed every night for their concert, with all the band singing the final lines together, and the line you are what you love, not who loves you hitting every single night.

SORRY. LISTEN TO FALL OUT BOY. thanks for letting me rant.

[bdslab]

One year ago, the Best BD Character Tournament began. As we know, Asterix came out our champion in the end... but what if we did it a little differently this time?

I'm giving our Quarterfinalists a shot at redemption. A chance to beat Asterix. All eight of them in the same poll, up for one week. We'll see who comes out on top this time

[billboard-hotties-tourney]

Before the Billboard Hotties Tourney finale commences (and yes, it is still temporarily postponed, unfortunately) I wanted to share a few statistics on the contestants that I thought were interesting.

First, we have the countries of origin of our contestants. Of the 256 that were in the tourney, over half of them were American (additionally, 2/3 of the quarterfinalists, 3/4 of the semifinalists, and both of the finalists are from the United States.) But we also had representation from about a dozen other countries and five different continents! Maybe if there's a sequel tourney next year, we'll see more countries represented.

One of the biggest differences between this tournament and the one at our inspiration (hotvintagepoll) is...just how many people are still alive. While only a handful of the men from the vintage actor tournament are still alive, just over half of our competitors here are with us to this day, or at least the day the polls started--some are even close to centenarian status. I guess that ten-year difference in year constraints makes all the difference!

Considering that many of the contestants fall into the genre of rock or pop in some form, I thought it would be interesting to look at how many of them are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While it's not the be-all and end-all of music, it's one of the most iconic musical halls of fame, and we certainly have our share of icons here. Of the 256 individuals in the tournament, 157 are in the RRHOF either as solo artists or as part of their band, including brand-new inductees Lou Gramm of Foreigner and Peter Frampton. As for the 99 contestants who aren't in the club (yet,) don't worry; it doesn't mean you're inarticulate. (Bye-bye, Jann Wenner)

As for when the contestants were born, there was a clear and overwhelming majority. 157 of the 256 contestants were born in the 1940s, most likely beginning their musical careers in the 60s and 70s. Those who were 1950s-born made up the second-biggest group with just 34. There was, to my delight, still a handful of contestants who were born in the 30s or earlier, the oldest contestant being Edgard Varèse (born in 1883!) Each image next to the decade depicts the longest-surviving person from the respective age group, and as you can probably tell, the young(?) guys really killed the competition.

Stand by, everyone, for the Billboard Consolation Prizes and the finals of the Billboard Hotties Tourney!

[fritzes]

rg draw, here we go:

wta:

thing are looking pretty good for iga. ostapenko is not in her quarter which is always a relief, and her projected qf opponent is marketa, who obviously has a great history at rg but has been really inconsistent lately. if she’s on top of her game she could be a threat, but that’s a big if. I think the more likely quarterfinalist is danielle, and I don’t think she can challenge iga on clay. marta kostyuk is also lurking in this quarter and could do some damage if she’s playing well, but again, is that good enough to beat iga at rg? probably not. iga could play naomi second round, and while that wouldn’t really be competitive, it could be nice to see!

across the draw, coco also has a pretty decent path to the semis but unlike iga, she isn’t rock-solid at rg and if she double faults the way she’s been doing the last few months, that’s gonna be a huge problem. she could play haddad maia in the round of 16, a semifinalist from last year. but haddad maia is super streaky and upset-prone, so it’s debatable whether she’ll get there. in the bottom half of this quarter is ons, who’s been having a really terrible season. I would love to see her make a deep run, but I could see her losing to ostapenko or garcia in the round of 16 if not earlier. in the quarterfinals, either of the two mentioned above could make things difficult for coco, especially if ostapenko is at the rg level we all know she’s capable of

if the projected semifinal does happen, it’s probably gonna be a repeat of the 2022 final if not worse. coco just doesn’t have a chance against iga on clay, and especially not at rg

I think the third quarter is gonna be pretty crazy. elena’s health has been in question lately and her recent slam results haven’t been great. of course, at any given moment she could play like the best in the world, so who knows. I could see elina or nastia being quarterfinalists here. elena is capable of beating both of them, but on clay I think they’re both capable of beating her. at the other end of this quarter is qinwen, who’s results since the ao haven’t been great. I don’t think she’s very comfortable on clay, and I would predict jasmine or kalinskaya as quarterfinalists over her. also, bianca andreescu is apparently back and in this quarter, so it will be interesting to see how she does

I would be really surprised if aryna doesn’t make the semifinals. her potential early seeded are boulter, navarro, and keys, none of whom are clay players. there’s also the potential of playing paula again, but paula would have to get there and if she does, aryna is the heavy favorite. I really don’t know who the other quarterfinalist will be. I’d love to have confidence in maria, but noskova and especially dasha could be threats. still, there’s no one aryna can’t beat in this quarter

if the projected semifinal for this half happens, I would majorly favor aryna. she just beat elena in madrid, and she’s way more comfortable on slow clay

interesting r1 matches: bronzetti/osaka, yastremska/tomljanovic, ostapenko/cristian, andreescu/sorribes tormo, azarenka/podoroska, boulter/badosa

atp:

people like to say that novak saves his best tennis for slams, that his recent slump will come to an end here. I’m not so sure about that. in his path to the quarterfinals he’s got potential musetti and cerundolo, both good rg players. even tommy paul could trouble him. and, if he has his usual thing of playing his way into form with tough early matches, he’s going to be exhausted if he does make qfs and plays rg specialist casper ruud. mensik is an early hurdle, but I really don’t think casper has a difficult draw at all. taylor in the round of 16 should be easy on clay, and his confidence against novak is at an all time high after monte carlo. if there was ever a time to get revenge for last year’s final, it’s now

the second quarter… I can’t believe this is real. rafa vs zverev in the first round. unfortunately zverev is the favorite to win, but it is rafa at rg. you never know. even with that aside, this quarter is crazy. holger is always a wild card at rg, and he is definitely capable of taking out zverev to make the qfs. and on the other end is the hard court specialist himself, daniil medvedev. this is honestly the best draw he could ask for, with bublik and de minaur as predicted seeds. I don’t think he could beat holger at rg, but I do think he could do what he’s been doing for so very long and beat zverev

I have very little faith in the projected semifinal actually happening. maybe one will get there, but I doubt both will

to the much more pleasant half of the draw, carlos has a decent path to the qfs. his projected early opponents, draper and korda, are both ridiculously inconsistent and not great on clay. ben or felix in the round of 16 shouldn’t be an issue either. on the other hand, the other potential quarterfinalists have a terrible draw with a ton of french people and of course each other: andrey and stefanos. will andrey’s few tools beat him again? I’m not sure. stefanos is great at rg and I think he can beat andrey, but his record against carlos is abysmal. stefanos has a better chance in the round of 16, but andrey has a better chance in the qf

jannik couldn’t have asked for a better draw, and if he’s healthy I think he can really go far here. baez isn’t a challenger to him and jarry is super inconsistent which jannik can take advantage of. the projected quarterfinalist is hubi, but I think it’s more likely to be grigor considering how much hubi relies on his serve. also, after the week he had in rome, maybe tabilo could make a deep run as well, who knows

words cannot express how much I want this projected semifinal to happen. and if it does, I think I would have to pick carlos to win because he’s jus that much more comfortable on clay. then again, jannik did beat carlos in the umag final, so you never know

interesting r1 matches: fritz/coria, etcheverry/cazaux, ruud/mensik, zverev/nadal, navone/carreño busta, arnaldi/fils, wawrinka/murray (I can’t believe this is real)