Australian Open Betting - Men's Tournament Winner Odds

So the bookies can barely be swayed. Will Nadal win the ‘Rafa Slam’ by holding all four Grand Slam titles at once or will four time Australian Open champion Federer repeat the trick? It’s too close to call - Federer is 9/5 with Sporting Bet while Nadal is 15/8 with Coral. Nobody else is really given a prayer. Is it any wonder?

World number one Nadal is poised to become the first man to win all four majors in a row since Rod Laver in 1969. Technically, this would not be regarded as a true ‘Grand Slam’ because Laver achieved the feat within one calender year where as the Spaniard began his Slam run at the French Open last June. Let’s be honest though, the achievement is every bit as spectacular over any 12 month period regardless of what some ‘purists’ may tell you. Not least of all because Nadal would have achieved his success in competition with the arguably the greatest player of all time.

Federer has won 16 Grands Slam titles, more than any other man in history. The only slight surprise is that he’s never competed the set himself. His only victory at the French Open came in 2009 when Nadal suffered his one and only defeat in Paris to Robin Soderling, thus clearing the path for his great Swiss rival. With Rafa struggling with injury Federer regained his Wimbledon crown before Juan del Potro ended any hopes of a ‘Roger Slam’ in its tracks at the US Open. Del Potro had beaten Nadal in the semis - the one and only time that any player has triumphed over both of the big guns in any Grand Slam event.

That statistic is one of the major reasons why British hope Andy Murray is only offered at 8/1 by Bluesquare, Paddypower and 888sport amongst others. If the World Number 5 does pull of the performance of a lifetime to beat Nadal in a semi-final then the problem is that he probably has to do something equally magnificent to stop Federer in the final. It’s a tough time to be hunting for your first Grand Slam title.

So who will win? If it is time for the 24-year-old Nadal to make his own piece of history then the bookmakers may never be so divided again in the future. It’s up to the 29-year-old Federer to show that his undisputed greatness in enduring.