Rafael Nadal loss “biggest upset in betting history”

August 17, 2013

Ladbrokes have hailed Rafael Nadal’s shock defeat at the hands of world number 100 Lukas Rosol as the “biggest upset in betting history”.

Nadal went a set up after a hard-fought tie-break win before Rosol bounced back by winning two sets of his own. Nadal got one back, but Rosol broke the Spaniard in the first game of the last set before holding serve to record a historic victory.

Nadal enjoyed pre-match odds of as short as 1/100 and, once going a set up, these odds climbed to as high as 1/250.

One better staked ?400 on Nadal at 1/200, meaning that he would have won just ?2, while the biggest stake came in at ?40,000 on the world number two.

Alex Donohue of Ladbrokes said: “We’ve never seen an upset like this in memory. Nadal was as sure to win as night follows day.”

Rosol’s odds have plummeted to win the entire tournament since his victory, now as low as 22/1 after pre-tournament odds of 1000/1.