Entries for the Australian Open 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em are now open at http://bit.ly/bGTaxm

The race for 2012 year-end BOTB number 1 starts here!

For those who have not played before, this is a competition where you pick the winner of each match from R1 to the Final before the tournament starts by clicking a few boxes - 127 matches, to be precise. There are no set scores to predict, so it should not take too much time. As well as playing as an individual, you can choose to play for a team (no need to be 'selected' - just pick the forum you feel the most affinity with from the dropdown list on the entry form - it's only a bit of fun!) to add a bit of extra interest.

Entries close at 23.59 GMT (= 11.59 pm UK, 6.59 pm US Eastern) on Sunday.

Qualifiers are scheduled to be placed sometime on Saturday but if the weather is bad in Melbourne, this may get delayed until Sunday morning (UK time) or, in the worst case scenario, they may not be placed before entries close. You are of course welcome to enter before qualifiers are placed if you are happy to pick qualifiers 'blind'.

Good luck - we will probably all need it!

Ive got Rafa beating Tsonga in the final!! More out of hope than judgement but Rafa prob has the easiest route through to the semis despite his relatively poor recent form and Tsongas win in Doha will hopefully give him a huge boost here

I'm in!

Nole to beat Roger in the final - although I agree with Liam that Rafa has a (slightly) easier route to the semis.

Not being psychic or having any hotel rooms bugged, I have decided that I have to assume that all of the big guns have dealt with their various injury worries... but I'm not altogether convinced.

A couple of asides: I'm seeing it as a good AO for the French contingent, aside from Gasquet whom I have out as a "shock" to Seppi in R1 and will probably now spite me by making the semis. And I have a nasty feeling that A-Rod is going to be pulped early on by a younger bigger upgraded version of himself (Raonic) and see the writing on the wall.

Found the first couple of rounds really tricky to pick. Is it just me or are there are a lot of horrendous 1st round draws for seeded players. In the end I went for Djokovic beating Del Potro in final. Was tempted to have Roddick out in the 1st round losing to Haase but I bottled it in the end (I have him losing to Hewitt instead!)...

Had a quick look and agree with MrI .Lots of tricky first round matches like Tomic/Verdasco and Almagro/Kubot. LLodra/Gulbis
Will be starting mine later on , but really havent a clue who will win at this point. Ill probably end up having the top four in the semis .But its the AO, and we havent had a 'surprise' finalist /winner for a while, maybe this year.

Got my picks in. Have Fed beating Novak in the final. I think that Tsonga will give Murray a hard time in the quarterfinals and might beat him.

Four hours to go folks!

Mind you most of our usual suspects are entered already - 19 CCers out of 373 as of an hour ago.

I'm in! with 2 minutes to spare, why am I always doing my picks at the last minute...

I took a few risks in the opening rounds but played in safe-ish with a Nadal/Djokovic final.

Oh dear. Down 84 to equal 240th. It didn't help that my coin toss for Gasquet came up the wrong side. I'm speaking literally by the way.

Much better for CC though, up 8 to 7, with Timmadigan shooting up to 10th and big jumps from Alli and Macborg to be one point behind in 31st

... and Nevets up 186 places to 60th!

I've lost a few R2 winners including de Voest masquerading as Mayer but nothing beyond that - all to play for.

DAY 2 MINI-REPORT (end of day tweets only)

TEAMS LEAGUE:

@mytennislounge won R1 by 0.36 from AM fans, who shot up 14 to 2nd on day 2, the Feddies, up 6 to 3rd, & @dailyforehand, up 8 to 4th.

The biggest fallers on day 2 were BT, down 10 to 13th, @newballsplease, down 8 to 15th & JM fans, down 8 to 16th.

TEAM KO

R1 matches - @mytennislounge v @jamie_murray fans, Bangors v MTF, Tennis.com v @GregRusedski1 board, BT v @dailyforehand, RogerFederer.com v RichardGasquet.net, ATP DCC v @TATtweets, @cctennisworld v @tennisopolis, @newballsplease v @andy_murray fans.

GBTG just missed out on qualifying for the team KO (finalists @ AO2011 - oops) as did the Ducklings, but all 18 teams continue in the league.

INDIVIDUAL:

LEADERS: 9 share the lead with 51/64 - Snoo Foo MT (=), Easter_Egg IN (up 3), salish ML, @jbs10is NB, Pingponger TA & anor AM (all up 31), @LuluArroyo IN & Leoh TN, both up 75, & top scorer of the day (29/32, 2 more than *anyone* else) Pzykit AM, up 245.

OTHER BIG RISERS: Up more than 250 places (27/32 today) X-Man-Guy TN, up 272 to 60=, Klippy IN, up 264 to 175= & J/Steve IN, up 264 to 175=.

FALLER OF THE DAY: @newballsplease NB (14/32 today, 3 less than anyone else), down 299 to 455=. Everyone scored at least 4 more than the gorillas in R1 as a whole though.

How do you get the daily positions ? I refuse to have anything to do with Twitter as I'm over 21 years old. Did anyone pick Gulbis to do anything? Remember my mantra - NEVER BACK GULBIS IN ANY COMPETITION. Had Tomic doing well, which is good. Also had Fish doing well, which is bad.

sirfred - results are still regularly updated on the BT competitions page at bit.ly/9kM5Xj the same way as they always were.

DAY 3 MINI-REPORT (end of day tweets only)

TEAMS

@mytennislounge lead by nearly a point. They won R1 & lead R2 jointly with GBTG, who put yday's disaster aside to soar up 12 to 5th!

In between them, just 0.06 covers Tennis.com, up 3 to 2, @GregRusedski1 board, up 9 to 3, & @andy_murray fan forum, down 2 to 4th.

Biggest fallers - RogerFederer.com, down 8 to 11, MTF, down 8 to 16, & @tennisopolis, down 7 to 17. @newballsplease drop to last.

INDIV

With 13/16 correct today, bethroberts GR & BOTB world no. 3 waylandboy-tw TA rose 9 places to take the joint lead. However, they only lead today's top scorers (with 14/16) JGS IN & @trmooney8 DC (both up 57 to 3=) on tiebreak, i.e. higher R1 score.

The biggest risers today were 13/16 scorers Joe IN, up 173 to 67, IconAlex CC, up 198 to 97, & TennisAnyone74 TA, up 227 to 170.

Dodgiest dropper (6/16 correct) was Sombra64 IN (RomixRod's dad, whom she convinced to take part and is happy to now be thrashing!), a fall of 349 to 409th outdoing even @newballsplease's prodigious plummet yday!

Having a heck of a time trying to keep up with the scores. Not sure how reliable the computers are (when it's Wednesday in the US, it's Thursday in Australia right?) BOOOOOO to Marty Fish-had him in the quarterfinals.

DAY 4 MINI-REPORT (end of day tweets)

Full results at the BT competitions page as ever - bit.ly/bGTaxm

TEAMS

R1 winners @mytennislounge win R2 too & lead by 0.72 from the Bangors, up 7 to 2nd, Rusedski.co.uk & @cctennisworld, up 4 to 4.

Biggest fallers today were Tennis.com, down 7 to 9th, & BT, down 4 to 11th. @newballsplease team still the lanternes rouges.

Team KO QFs

@mytennislounge v Bangors
@GregRusedski1 board v BT
RogerFederer.com v ATP DCC
@cctennisworld v @andy_murray fanforum

INDIV

salish ML, equal top scorer today (12/16) & for R2 (24/32) leads by 2 from @jbs10is NB, up 3 to 2, & theFlyingBeagleman, up 17 to 3.

Along 1st & 3rd, the other top scorers in R2 were rf8r9 RF, up 29 to 5=, @jordansmed IN, down 2 to 5=, & @ozzo2k BB, up 8 to 5=.

130+ RISERS today: fil-813 IN up 139 to 72, Gale Beggy TN up 131 to 101, Pharaonic IN up 140 to 129, @ReverendKoffie TA, up 162 to 192.

DODGY DROPPER: One outstanding candidate today - cathmcd IN, down 203 to 420th after getting 6/16 correct. Jenn T TN is now last though.