A $1.02 bet on Roger Federer. You'd think that's as safe as any punt you could place.
But an Aussie punter seeking to gain a $700 profit lost $35,000 when Roger Federer suffered a fourth round defeat at the US Open yesterday.
The 20-time grand slam winner was stunned yesterday in a five set defeat to the unseeded Australian John Millman.
It was a victory many Australians would have been proud of as the 29-year-old Queenslander became just the second Aussie to defeat Federer in a grand slam match and the first since Pat Rafter in 1999.
But talk about un-Australian. TAB.com.au revealed before the match, a punter placed the large bet on the Swiss great to win the match at the very low odds of $1.02.
Ouch.
It's only the second time in Federer's past 14 appearances at the US Open that he's lost before the quarterfinals. He is, after all, a five-time champion at the tournament, part of his men's-record haul of 20 Grand Slam titles.
So much for that much-anticipated matchup between Federer and 13-time major champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Instead, it'll be the 55th-ranked Millman, who had never made it past the third round at a Slam until last week, taking on No. 6 seed Djokovic.