BOOKMAKERS strongly believe Andy Murray's interest in the men's singles at Wimbledon will end at the quarter-final stage, with Rafael Nadal identified as his likely stumbling block.
Murray's indifferent form in recent weeks and the thumb injury he sustained at Queen's has prompted the bookies to effectively dismiss his chances of winning the title, with odds of around 50-1 available with Victor Chandler and on the betting excha
nges.
Ladbrokes make it 11-10 that he will get as far as the last eight, 7-2 the last 16, 9-1 the third round, 12-1 the second round and 6-1 that he will tumble out at the first hurdle.
Coral are prepared to offer 2-1 that Murray makes the quarter-finals, again the most fancied option, and will give odds of 12-1 that he reaches the semi-finals and 20-1 that he is a beaten finalist. They rate him a 9-2 shot to crash out this afternoon.
On the book, there appears little chance of that happening. The Scot is generally priced at 1-12 to win his first round match against Fabrice Santoro on Centre Court and is 8-15 to progress without dropping a set.
Ladbrokes spokesman, Nick Weinberg, said: "As expected, Murray is the man punters want to be with ahead of his first round match. But he's still a good result in our outright book."
Disappointingly, Murray novelty bets are thin on the ground, but Paddy Power are running a book on the number of punnets of strawberries sold at Wimbledon this year, making 70,001 and 90,000 their 2-1 favourite.
The full article contains 280 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
