Revenge on the menu for Rafa ahead of today’s Wimbledon final
Published:It’s the punters vs the bookmakers in today’s Wimbledon final with Rafael Nadal representing the punters and Novak Djokovic the bookies.
Having been the subject of strong support all the way through the tournament bar his one match with Andy Murray, Nadal will cost the bookmakers a huge amount should he emerge victorious today.
Despite the fact he has lost just one match all year, Djokovic has been the least supported of the men’s top four all the way through the tournament, and the fact he is the 11/8 outsider for today’s final sees the bookmakers firmly in the Serb’s camp.
Nadal is yet to beat Djokovic in four attempts this year and all of those matches have been in finals, but the Serb faces the Spaniard on grass and Nadal’s Wimbledon record is incredible.
The 8/13 favourite for today’s final has lost just twice at Wimbledon in 33 matches since losing to Gilles Muller in the 2005 Wimbledon championships, and the only man that conquered Nadal in that time was Roger Federer.
If Nadal wasn’t so dominant on clay then people would be calling the grass courts his favoured surface, and while Djokovic dominated the hard court season, beating Nadal on the grass courts will be a whole new experience.
Only once have the two met at Wimbledon in their 27 head-to-heads, and that form is made redundant after Djokovic retired in the third set at 4-1 down but having won the first set.
They have met on grass at Queens once and Nadal was a straight sets winner but it wasn’t a convincing win for the Spaniard who won 7-6, 7-5.
This has the makings of a real classic today and Djokovic can firmly replace Federer as Nadal’s main rival.
Exactly five sets is priced at 9/4 while it’s 8/15 that there is a tiebreak in the match and should it go the distance, Nadal is favoured to edge it at 4/1 to win 3-2 with Djokovic 5/1 to in 3-2.
