Andy Murray to finish Nadal tomorrow, odds makers certain

Andy Murray to finish Nadal tomorrow, odds makers certain The second semi-final at the men's 2008 US Open Tennis Championship between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal was postponed in-play due to rain, but the odds makers are heavily backing up the British tennis player to finish the job. On Saturday Andy Murray was two sets up against world number one Rafael Nadal, but what remains of tropical storm Hanna put the breaks on the game, as well as cancelling the women's final between Williams and Jankovic (odds). The top UK tennis player was up the first two sets 6-2 7-6 (7-5) against the US Open to seed, but was trailing 2-3, when the rain postponed the game for Sunday.

Odds makers remain certain that the rain-break was more than welcome by Murray, who has lost five of the last five meetings with Nadal and entered the 2008 US Open big underdog compared to the Spaniard. Murray has captured just two sets against Nadal, and that was in their first encounter at the Australian Open in 2007 and Andy Murray has not taken a set from the Spaniard since that match. Most recently he was beaten handily in Toronto and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. At the online sportsbook BodogLife the betting odds on the Andy Murray vs. Rafael Nadal semi-final game are not favoring the Scot with -175 odds to finish the job tomorrow, although a come-back by Nadal is real threat to the sixth seed - Rafael Nadal is underdog at only +135, even though he is trailing by two sets.

It's similar story with the UK bookmakers, as well. Although our top choice in British online betting, the website Bet 365, has withdrawn the match odds at press time, the UK bookie still had Rafael Nadal listed with odds 3/1 to win the men's 2008 US Open and Andy Murray was underdog at 10/3. Roger Federer is still 4/7 favorite to win the US Open outright.

Published on 09/06/2008