Biggest sporting upsets: Vondrousova joins list of surprise successes

Odds of 42/1 were available for Douglas, who recovered from being floored in the eighth round to knock out the “baddest man on the planet” in the 10th.

Douglas had lost his mum 23 days before the fight and when later asked how he had pulled off such a shock result, he declared: “Because of my mother – God bless her heart.”

Ice hockey

A team of American college players defied the odds to beat the Soviet Union’s ‘Big Red Machine’ 4-3 in a match at the 1980 Winter Olympics which was to be dubbed the ‘Miracle on Ice’.

Tennis

Goran Ivanisevic was world number 125 at the time he entered Wimbledon in 2001, seemingly a pale imitation of his former self.

But the Croatian wild-card had a memorable tournament, defying all odds and culminating in a highly emotional and popular five-set final win over the previous year’s runner-up Patrick Rafter.

Football

Greece arrived at Euro 2004 in Portugal as unheralded 150/1 outsiders but kicked off with a surprise defeat of the hosts which set the tone for the whole tournament.

With Germany, Italy and Spain failing to get past the group stage, Otto Rehhagel’s side upset defending champions France in the quarter-finals, edged out Czech Republic in the semis and stunned Portugal again in the final, keeping clean sheets in all of their knockout matches.

Rugby Union

South Africa were among the favourites to claim outright success at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England but suffered their first loss to a Tier 2 nation in the opening round of group-stage fixtures.

In a thrilling contest which swung one way and then the other, Japan prevailed 34-32 under the leadership of Eddie Jones.

A film titled The Brighton Miracle was made about the match, which remains one of the biggest sporting upsets.

Cricket

Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien hit the fastest hundred in World Cup history to set up a three-wicket win over England in Bangalore in 2011, coming to the wicket with his team 111 for five in pursuit of a total of 328 and making 113 from 63 balls.

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