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Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tiger Tim bows out of Wimbledon

Tim Henman's latest agonising exit from Wimbledon proved a rollercoaster ride for punters as over £16million was traded on Betfair.

The British number two lost his second-round clash against Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (3-7) 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-2 1-6 to the dismay of the Centre Court crowd.

Henman was the clear favourite on Betfair at the outset at 1.68 while Lopez was trading at 2.46. But with the Spaniard taking the first two sets those odds quickly changed, Lopez being backed in to 1.07 while Henman drifted out to 13.

However just before Henman started his recovery he was matched at as high and 23 and those who backed him at that price were on good terms with themselves when he levelled the match at 2-2.

Heading into the deciding set the odds had flip-flopped yet again but this time Henman didn't have the necessary reserves as Lopez raced to victory. A massive £16.3million was traded on the game at the betting exchange and around £900,000 of that was matched on Henman at odds of 1.5 and lower.

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And Henman has been expensive for punters over the years with Ladbrokes reckoning that Henman has cost British punters an estimated £50 million during his 14 years of Wimbledon failure and near-misses.

David Williams of Ladbrokes said: "The Tiger is now extinct and deep down we're a bit gutted. We hoped he'd make it to the second week if only to keep the dream alive.

"Where there's Henman there's always been hope but we'd be astonished if punters were willing to give him any more chances.

"He now joins the likes of snooker's Jimmy White and golf's Colin Montgomerie as an incredibly expensive nearly-man.

"He's given us countless sleepless nights down the years but ultimately we've kept the cash. We might just send him some bubbly to help ease the pain of defeat."

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There should be one final hurrah for Henman who is 1/3 (1.33) with Eurobet to play at Wimbledon at least once more and 2-1 (3.00) not to return to SW19.