Federer, Nadal Still Odds Leaders

The men's quarter-finals take place today at Wimbledon, with world numbers one and two Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal the runaway leaders in the odds for tournament winner.

Federer, odds-on at 8/13 at Ladbrokes online, and Nadal, 6/4, sit well ahead of a field of surprising quarter-final participants, beginning with 12th seeded Brit Andrew Murray, 14/1, unseeded Russian and former US Open and Australian Open winner Marat Safin, 25/1, Croatian Mario Ancic, 40/1, and three players on 125/1 each: 31st seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, French veteran Arnaud Clement and German Rainer Schuettler.

Ladbrokes continues to be inventive with its range of bets on offer.  Celebrating the rare appearance of a British player so late in the tournament, many of these revolve around the Murray-Nadal fixture.  These include the "Ooh, I say" bet, with 4/1 odds given on the possibility of Murray being given an official warning by the umpire at any time during the match.  The "Never say die" offer quotes 33/1 odds on Murray winning the match after saving a match point. Ladbrokes is giving 2/1 odds on the "Plucky Brit scenario," in which Murray would have an early lead on sets but eventually lose the match.    The overall match odds are 1/6 for a Nadal victory against 7/2 for Murray.

The two ladies' semi-finals will be played on Thursday, with much interest surrounding the appearance of Jie Zheng, the first Chinese player to ever make it this far into a grand slam tournament. The bookies are tipping she won't go any further though, with Jie 5/1 to win her match against sixth seed Serena Williams, who is odds-on at 1/9.  Serena's sister Venus, the seventh seed in this tournament, is an almost as intimidating 1/4 to defeat fifth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva, who is 11/4.

If these odds aren't for you, search any one of the plethora of betting sites online. 888 Sports, a longstanding online casino and poker website, has recently joined the traditional bookmakers in offering sports betting options online.  That, and plenty of other sports betting websites, means there is a wide range of betting options available on major sporting events such as Wimbledon.