Tennis Chatter

It has been reported by all the major publications that the tennis unit-corruption investigation has heated up in yesterday. There are several matches under heavy investigation, such as Dmitry Tursunov vs Boris Pashanski (St Petersburg) as well as matches involving Marcos Daniel, Flavio Saretta, Nikolay Davydenko and more.

Brazilian Flavio Saretta claimed yesterday that he was offered $156,000 to lose his first round match at the French Open last year. Saretta rejected the offer and then beat Italian Potito Starace, which actually earned his a meeting in the second round with the man at the middle of the betting controversy, Nikolay Davydenko.

Another Brazilian who refused a bribe was Marcos Daniel, who was offered $21,000 to lose to Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu, which happened in Acapulco (a match which Daniel won).

Finally the ATP are probing into Dmitry Tursunov’s victory over Boris Pashanski in St Petersburg. Some sources say that Tursunov was being backed to win the match at $1.20 despite having lost the first set, trailing 0-2 in the second and while he was getting treatment for his lower back. The internet betting exchange Betfair who was involved with the above betting declined to void the market because it had been influenced by the actions of a single high-rolling punter (who is knows as a significant loser). The punters is said to have placed a large bet discreetly through the organisation’s brokerage team but, frustrated at delays, lumped on his stake “up front”, sending prices tumbling. Tursunov ending up winning the match 4-6 6-3 6-4.

All this information follows closely with claims by other professional players, Novak Djokovic, Gilles Elseneer, Dick Norman and Arvind Parmer.

Photo: Getty Images

Davidoff Swiss Indoor 

Singles - Final
[1] R Federer (SUI) d J Nieminen (FIN) 63 64

Doubles - Final
[1] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d J Blake (USA) / M Knowles (BAH) 61 61

St Petersburg Open 

Singles - Final
[2] A Murray (GBR) d [6] F Verdasco (ESP) 62 63

Doubles - Final
[1] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) d [4] J Melzer (AUT) / T Perry (AUS) 61 76(3)

Lyon

Singles - Final
S Grosjean (FRA) d M Gicquel (FRA) 76(5) 64

Roger Federer returned to his home tournament of the season, Basel. 48 hours earlier he missed the opportunity to lift his 7th title of the season when he lost in Madrid to David Nalbandian. In his first round match in Basel he was up against Michael Berrer (GER). After winning the first set easily 6-1 he then was under a bit of pressure from the German who took the second set 6-3, but in the final set Roger showed his classed and finally came out with a victory 6-1 3-6 6-3. after nearly 90 minutes.

Picture: Getty Images

It has been reported that Wayne Arthurs, who retired this year, has been mentioned in reports over match fixing in international tennis.

There has been 140 matches in question over the past four years which are currently being reviewed by the ATP. Arthurs was involved in one of those matches, Wimbledon 2005 in which he defeated Filippo Volandri of Italy. Volandri who is a clay court specialist was still expected to lose to Arthurs who has some of his best results on the grass courts of Wimbledon. Arthurs did win the match  6-3 6-4 6-4.

Arthurs since has issued a statement that he had never been involved in match fixing and that the Australian public would know him well enough to believe he was never involved.

After Madrid it seems that the race for Shanghai is starting to heat up. The most recent addition to the year ending event is Andy Roddick in 5th. The 7th and 8th spots are very much going to come down to the last Masters Series event in Paris. Current Standings are as follows:

• 7th - Fernando Gonzalez - 368
• 8th - Tommy Haas - 329
• 9th - Tommy Robredo - 328
• 10th - James Blake - 327
• 11th - Richard Gasquet - 321
• 12th - Tomas Berdych - 318

And with 100 points going to the winner in Paris, it is all to play for. Even the finalist in Paris will receive 70 points. So out of those players who will step up under pressure? Or possibly it could be someone even lower that could steal a place, because it must be understood there is nearly $4.5 million in the prize pool for Shanghai. Big Pay Day for the Pressure Player!

About 8 hours after my last post the final of Madrid has been played. At the end of my last post I mentioned that personally I wouldnt bet against David Nalbandian to win the title and surprise surprise I was right. David Nalbandian has defeated Roger Federer in the final 1-6 6-3 6-3.

This caps of an amazing week for Nalbandian who has now defeated world number 1, 2 and 3 this week in consecutive rounds. Simply amazing. Now I have to say it again for you all, watch Nalbandian to do very very well at the Australian Open at the start of next year, he has to be the player to watch who you know can win the tournament.

David Nalbandian has continued is very good form and beats Djokovic in Madrid. The Argentine won 6-4 7-6. This week in Madrid Nalbandian has already defeated world number 2 Rafael Nadal and now world number 3 Novak Djokovic and the only person left in his way to take the Madrid title is world number 1 Roger Federer. Nalbandian has been a top 10 player for many years now and the 24 year old has had a dreadful year with injury and it is good to see him back at the top of the game and here to take on the best in the world. Come the new year make sure you look out for him to cause some upsets in Australia.

According to BetUS.com Roger is the odds on favourite to take the title in Madrid. Would anyone bet against him? Personally i dont mind the odds that Nalbandian has. Make sure you watch this space tomorrow for me to say how Nalbandian won a close final!

The first 2 players into the Madrid Semi-finals are David Nalbandian and Novak Djokovic.

David Nalbandian def. Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-2

Novak Djokovic def. Mario Ancic 7-6 6-2

As you can tell by the results it was a very clinical display by Nalbandian who only dropped three games on his way to victory in just over an hour. The last time Nadal was held to as few as three games was in the Lyon first round in October 2004 event by Julien Benneteau of France, who scored a 6-3 6-0 win. Nalbandian will now take on number three Djokovic in the first semi-final and on recent form with victories over Berdych and now Nadal, would you bet against him to make the final?

Madrid Masters Series started on Monday and on day 2 we have already seen a few upsets. Ivo Karlovic had a very tough first round match against Marat Safin, especially considering Karlovic is in such good form and confident after his tournament win in Stockholm last week. Here in Madrid Karlovic made it through the first round winning 6-4 6-4. In second round matches there has been two key upsets so far, with Andy Murray defeating (15) Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1 6-3 and Juan Monaco knocking out (11) Tommy Haas 6-4 7-5.

After his win last week in front of his home crowd, Nikolay Davydenko has booked his place at the season ending event in Shanghai. Davydenko defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu in a very tight Moscow final, 7-5 7-6. He now joins Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in Shanghai.

Andy Roddick and David Ferrer are also pretty much assured of their places in Shanghai, as long as the dont have a shock upset in Madrid.

I have been reading a lot about the possible match fixing problem in tennis at present and it seems to be a very hot topic.

Andy Murray has claimed this week that there is a lot of corruption and match fixing in tennis at the top level today. The BBC has also quoted Tim Henman as saying he has heard other players in the game talking about match fixing but never been involved himself.

Roger Federer has said to Tennis.com that in Miami the ATP organised a presentation by ex-Mafia boss Michael Franzese to talk to the players about the dangers of becoming involved in gambling. Roger stated ” When I went into the meeting, I was kind of, ‘what the hell?’ What he said was interesting and scary at the same time.”

It is hard to think that match fixing is not in Tennis. The matches themselves are very tight and it is nearly impossible to tell if a player is making mistakes and tanking deliberately. It has always amazed me that when prizemoney is so low and there are a lot of players losing week in week out, but somehow being able to play all the tournament, fly their and stay in the top hotels! Its a bit suspicious.

What do you think about it all??