Rafael Nadal, the No. 1 seed in the Australian Open, is out after just the second round of the tournament. Battling through a hip injury throughout his matchup against American Mackenzie McDonald on Tuesday night, Nadal limped his way to a 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 loss. Per BetMGM, the defending champion had the third-shortest odds (+1400) to win the event and had garnered the second-highest number of bet tickets (13%).
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Rafael Nadal’s Australian Open Loss Costs Betting Community
Rafael Nadal came into his match against Mackenzie McDonald as a huge -1400 favorite after defeating Jack Draper in the first round but fell out of rhythm quickly in the first set. Then Nadal pulled up limp on a return attempt at the beginning of the second set and clearly lost most of his mobility for the remainder of the match. He would return from an injury break but proved to be a mere shell of the player who has won 22 Grand Slams throughout his storied career.
“It’s a tough moment. It’s a tough day,” Nadal said, per ESPN. “I can’t say that I am not destroyed mentally at this moment, because I would be lying.”
Nadal said that he did not want to leave the court for retirement, opting to see it through to the end despite the clear pain in his left hip. The 36-year-old said that he had been feeling some discomfort in the hip in the days leading up to the match, but nothing as bad as what he experienced during the loss.
For McDonald, the win over Nadal marked the biggest triumph of his young career. And even with his opponent dealing with an injury, McDonald knew not to take a player of Nadal’s caliber lightly.
“‘It’s never over until it’s over’ type thing,” McDonald said. “He didn’t even want to roll over and quit. He kept fighting until basically the end, even though he maybe didn’t have all his game.”
“I was in the locker room, and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s actually really big for me because I haven’t beaten someone of that caliber,'” McDonald added.
Per DraftKings, Novak Djokovic (who has also had to battle an injury) has taken over as the large betting favorite to win the Australian Open with Nadal out of the picture. He’s followed by Daniil Medvedev (+400), Taylor Fritz (+1200), Stefanos Tsitsipas (+1500), Holger Rune (+1800) and Jannik Sinner (+2000).
McDonald will be a slight betting underdog (+140) for his match against Yoshihito Nishioka on Thursday night.
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