With a titantic match-up in the first round of the 2014 Australian Open looming, it pays off to look back at history and dredge what upsets happened in recent memory.

Australia’s Bernard Tomic faces Spain’s Rafael Nadal in their opening matches and tennis fans can’t wait to see if the home country’s bet has indeed what it takes to pull the rug underneath the world No. 1 player.

So which top seeds fell in the opening round of a Grand Slam most recently? Here’s a list of 2013 “upsets” (Top 20 seeds only, seeds in parenthesis):

2013 Australian Open - (11) Juan Monaco, (18) Alexander Dolgopolov and (19) Tommy Haas
2013 French Open - (5) Tomas Berdych and (17) Juan Monaco
2013 Wimbledon Championships - (5) Rafael Nadal, (11) Stanislas Wawrinka, (14) Janko Tipsarevic,
(16) Philipp Kohlschreiber and (19) Gilles Simon
2013 US Open - (11) Ken Nishkori, (14) Jerzy Janowicz and (15) Nicolas Almagro

That list includes the first round upset in the first round at Wimbledon when Steve Darcis busted the brackets by serving a straight sets upset (7-6 (4), 7-6(8), 6-4) over Nadal, who was then seeded No. 5.

A round later, it was Roger Federer who was booted out early falling to Sergiy Stakovsky in four sets (6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5, 7-6 (5)) for the second major upset in that tournament.

So the question for Tomic is does he have enough motivation to pull off a feat similar as Darcis and Stakovsky?

The 27-year-old Spaniard and 21-year-old Australian have only met once in their careers with Nadal winning in straight sets (6-2, 7-5, 6-4) in the third round of the 2011 Australian Open.

Tomic is once again the huge underdog in this marquee match-up, he’s priced at around 9.5 in most sportsbooks while Nadal is at 1.06 for the money line bet. Also, Nadal is handicapped at -7.5 games in the game handicap betting.

For the uninitiated in sports betting, every $100 wager on Nadal to win this match means a $106 payout (or just $6 win) while the same $100 bet on Tomic will earn the bettor a total payout of $950 or a $850 win!

Regarding the game handicap, Nadal needs to win by 8 or more games to “cover” the -7.5 games spread.

Nadal was positive about the opening round match with the local but offered that Tomic is indeed a threat.

“Not the best round I know to start a Grand Slam, playing against a player who is local and who is young, who played great in the past here, and who is playing well,” said Nadal in the pre-tournament press conference from the official website of the Australian Open.

Nadal holds a 5-0 win-loss cared in 2014. He already has one ATP title this season with a win at the 2014 Qatar Open while Tomic is at 4-1 and coming off a loss in the final of the Apia International Sydney.

''He's going to be very intimidating to play. You just have to stay with him. I mean, he is human. He does [make] mistakes, obviously not as much as the other players, but I've got to play very, very good tennis to have any chance,” stated Tomic to the Sydney Morning Herald after the draw was announced.

That’s not much of a specific strategy for the local bet, but at least the Aussie is going into match with the right mindset.

If indeed lightning does not strike twice—Bernard Tomic would like to believe otherwise.

Prediction: Nadal defeats Tomic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 (Nadal wins the match but Tomic covers the -7.5 spread)