2016 Tennis-X Year-end Top 10 Contest Announces Winner

What a mess of a year it was for predicting the Top 10 year-end men’s rankings.

Rafael Nadal’s year was peppered with injury. The former No. 1 barely finished in the Top 10. Roger Federer was forced to shut down his year prior to the Olympics and the US Open, dropping him out of the Top 10.

Novak Djokovic looked undefeatable heading into the year, and after winning the Australian Open, but Andy Murray fans know how that turned out. Djokovic seemed demoralized by the end of the season with both on- and off-court problems. Guru, anyone?

There were also some prescient predictions amongst all the contest entry chatter, if you listened carefully.

“Novak’s unbeaten run at the top shall END next year,” wrote calmdownplease. “[He] won’t make it to the YENO spot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yes, you heard it here first.”

That we did. And two entrants really listened, putting Murray as their No. 1 — former winner Francisco, and chico.

There was also resistance to putting new players in the year-end Top 10, specifically Gael Monfils and Dominic Thiem. No one had the French clown in their Top 10, and only two entrants had Thiem.

“Hard to see anyone who’s never finished in the top 10 doing it this year,” opined funches along with her entry last December. “The only player I considered but did not pick was Cilic.”

Doh!

Before we get to the nine-way tie for first place, let’s honor the “average,” those that were able to pick seven of the Top 10: Beer Me, Chrisford1, Colin10 (former champ), Daniel, Dari, Dio, Elina, Emm-jee (former champ), Francisco (former champ), Funches, Gypsie Gal, Jalep, Jatt, JD, Kei O, Lakie, Nikola, Nithism, Nits, Patson (former champ), Rahul Karodia, Raj, RSP, RZ, Steven Spence, Tennis Vagabond, TB, Thangs, Vami, and Vinod.

Hey, it’s better than no mention at all (everyone with six or less correct)!

Tied for first place with eight of the year-end Top 10 correct were nine players — Ann Ny, Armelwani, Armend Kosovo, Gaston, Jaq Shivam, KJB, Margot, Michael, and Proshant Kapoor.

So we go to the tiebreaker — who named the most players in their correct positions in the Top 10?

That cut it down to Armelwani, Armend Kosovo, Jaq Shivam, and Ann Ny, each with only one correct position player (the rest had zero).

That means the application of tiebreak No. 2 — who had the highest correct position pick?

That determined our winner, as Jaq Shivam was the only player of the nine tied for first to correctly pick Stan Wawrinka in the No. 4 spot.

Congrats to Jaq Shivam. Armelwani finished second, and Armend Kosovo and Ann Ny tied for third.

Jaq Shivam joins the illustrious list of past champions:

TENNIS-X TOP 10 YEAR-END HALL OF FAME

2016 Jaq Shivam
2015 colin09
2014 Patson
2013 Mat4
2012 emm-jee
2011 N-Dru
2010 Francisco
2009 anthony

Jaq Shivam, contact the webmaster with your mailing address for your fabulous prize package, and see everyone soon for the 2017 contest (look for it) in a couple days.

Happy holidays — Tennis-X staff