Wimbledon Retrospect
Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
Wimbledon is the oldest most prestigious tennis tournament in the world, and has been held at the All England Club ever since 1877 and is now bigger than ever. Every summer us Brits are treated to the biggest event in Tennis for two weeks. In these two weeks we can expect great victories and great losses, but most of all, huge surprises. This is what makes The Championships such a tricky contest to bet on, as none of us truly know what could happen.
The surprise that comes to most peoples’ minds initially is that of Rafael Nadal. Entering Wimbledon as a two-time champion at the club who also happened to be on a 22-match winning streak, with odds at 7/2; expectation was high. This expectation plummeted like a ball of lead when he lost to Steve Darcis in a terrible straight-set defeat of 7-6 6-7 6-4. Even more stunning is the fact that not a single bet in the country was taken on Darcis for Ladbrokes.
Also within the first three days of play, Wimbledon said farewell to Roger Federer. Who thought that the man with the most Wimbledon trophies under his belt would be out so soon? The odds certainly didn’t, trading at 5-1 with the bookmakers. He then lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-7 7-6 7-5 7-6, surprising many a Wimbledon-watcher worldwide.
Next up is Serena Williams. On a 34-match winning streak (her career best), we all felt a shock as she lost to Sabine Lisicki of Germany (who had opening odds of 50/1) in the fourth round. If the men’s rounds had already suffered such a surprise, who thought we’d see it in the other half of the tournament too? 1-2 favourite to win the Ladies’ Singles, Williams buckled at the third set with a score of 6-2 1-6 6-4.
Finally, before we announce our last Wimbledon surprise, it seems that we should congratulate our Wimbledon 2013 Men’s Singles winner, Andy Murray (he had opening odds of 7/2, and was second-favourite to win this year). Although Britain has won the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final 36 times (more than any other country), no one has done so since Fred Perry in 1936. This huge achievement underlies Murray’s dramatic win against Novak Djokovic with three straight, but very tense, sets of 6-4 7-5 6-4.
Now for the final Wimbledon 2013 shocker. We all know how supportive Judy Murray has been of her son Andy. Although she finished coaching him at the age of 12, she has since been right behind him, even working a second job to earn enough money to pay £30,000 for him to go to a tennis academy in Spain. So what in the world happened when he forgot to hug her after his win?! He gave hugs to his team and his girlfriend, then proceeding to climb off the famous box before he remembered to give his good old mum a cuddle. We wouldn’t like to be Murray when he gets home after all of this that’s for sure, the odds are on a telling off!
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