A WHOPPING bet on Nick Kyrgios to win this month’s Australian Open has left bookmakers stunned, with one ambitious punter facing a near-million dollar payout if the Aussie young gun does the unthinkable.

While Kyrgios can beat anyone in the world on his day, he’s yet to show the kind of consistency required to win a slam and didn’t make it past the second round last year.

That hasn’t stopped one punter unloading on the 22-year-old in a stunning show of faith, outlaying a whopping $40,000 on his to win the title at with sportsbet.com.au at odds of $21.

UK VIEW: SHOCK MURRAY RETIREMENT CALL, ‘NEW HEWITT’ INCENTIVE

The punter will be paid out $840,000 if Kyrgios can became the first Australian champion at Melbourne Park since Mark Edmondson in 1976 — a tidy 800k profit.

“This bet totally took us by surprise. Kyrgios has the weapons to win a Grand Slam, but that’s about it really. Best of luck to the punter…..I think they’ll need it,” said sportsbet.com.au’s Christian Jantzen.

Roger Federer ($3.25) is a firming favourite to win this year’s tournament ahead of world No.1 Rafael Nadal ($4.50), Novak Djokovic ($6) and young gun Alexander Zverev ($10).

CASH’S ‘GROSS’ LINESWOMAN GAG

Aussie great Pat Cash made an unexpected cameo appearance at the Hopman Cup in Perth when he took the court to replace injured American Jack Sock.

Partnering CoCo Vandeweghe, whom he coaches, the 52-year-old entertained the crowd with some lighthearted moments involving the ball kids and line officials.

However a bizarre decision to wipe his sweat on a lineswoman’s shirt was a bit too much for some on social media, with the incident labelled “gross” and “disgusting”.

‘THANASI QUOAKKANAKIS’

It’s the Aussie summer of tennis which means players posing with cute and cuddly native animals.

The great Roger Federer got the ball rolling before the New Year and he’s now got some strong competition in the animal selfie stakes, especially from our own Daria ‘Dasha’ Gavrilova with this pun-tastic effort.