A riveting 105th Australian Open reaches its climax on Sunday night when tennis titans Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal clash in a men’s final no one saw coming.
Twenty four hours after Serena Williams denied sister Venus 6-4 6-4 in the oldest women’s grand slam decider ever, Federer and Nadal will also roll back the years in a retro men’s final at Melbourne Park.
The appearances of Serena, 35, Venus, 36, Roger, 35 and Rafa, 30, in the championship matches marks the first time the veteran quartet have played off for the men’s and women’s trophies since Wimbledon in 2008.
The odds of such a scenario unfolding at the start of the tournament were 16,000-1, according to veteran bookmaker Gerard Daffy.
“We all thought 2016 was the year of the sporting upset, with the Western Bulldogs, (Cronulla) Sharks, the (Chicago) Cubs, the Cavaliers all breaking droughts, 2017 might even be bigger,” Daffy said.
“We’ve already seen the Sydney to Hobart favourite flounder and now these veterans are all turning back the clock at the biggest sporting event in Australia.”
The UBET spruiker said the Williams sisters and Federer and Nadal all making the Open final was, in terms of odds, the biggest shock since sports betting was legalised in Australia in 1992.
Bookmakers around the world stand to lose millions if the hugely popular Federer can topple Nadal for the first time at a grand slam in a decade.
“You could put Roger Federer in the Olympic 100-metres final against Usain Bolt and people would still back Federer – because it’s Federer,” Daffy said.
“So people who have been blind loyal to him might just hit the jackpot when everything pointed to him having no hope.”
Federer, already the men’s all-time grand slam title leader, is attempting to win his 18th major four and a half years after last reigning at one of tennis’s four biggest events.
It’s also the Swiss master’s first tournament back since breaking down at Wimbledon last July with a recurrence of a knee injury he required surgery for five months earlier.
Nadal, chasing his 15th slam, is hoping to crown his own comeback from an injury-ravaged 2016 season and re-enter the conversation about who is the sport’s greatest modern-day player.
