Men's Tennis Tour Chief Vows To Probe Suspicious Betting
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Underlining the importance of protecting tennis's "appeal and integrity," the head of the men's professional tour promised yesterday to use "all means available" for an investigation into suspicious betting on a match involving fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.
Etienne de Villiers, the ATP's executive chairman, said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that "independent, external resources" would be used to look into why a British online gambling company received about $7 million in wagers on the match, 10 times the usual amount.
Most of the money was on No. 87 Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina to win -- and some of those bets were placed after he lost the first set to Davydenko, a semifinalist at the French Open twice and at the U.S. Open last year.
The gambling company, Betfair, voided all bets on the second-round match on clay at Sopot, Poland. Davydenko wound up winning the second set, then retiring in the third with a left toe injury.
"It is important that we not jump to conclusions, especially when players' reputations could be unfairly tainted," de Villiers said. "What we must do is carry out a comprehensive and immediate investigation, and that is what we are doing."
Davydenko's agent, Eckhard Oehms, told the AP the Russian was "flabbergasted" when told about the suspicious betting.
"Neither Nikolay nor his coach nor me nor anybody out of our entourage has been involved in this," Oehms said in a telephone interview.
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