Ever since the Nikolay Davydenko gambling controversy broke out last year, the game of tennis has been under the microscope of everyone involved in the sport, be it officials, players, supporters, or even the bookmakers. However, the truth of the matter is that tennis betting has become one of the most popular forms of sports betting, and for honest bettors and genuine fans of the game, considerable profits are regularly made without resorting to corruption. For example, a gambler was reported to have placed an on-stake bet on Andy Murray to come back from 2 sets against and defeat Richard Gasquet at the recent Wimbledon Championship. The gamble was not significantly large, but if it had been, perhaps some serious problems would have arisen. Murray was getting beaten up by the Frenchman at the time and looked like a certain underdog in straight sets after the Frenchman played some of the most inspired tennis in the championship. Somehow Murray managed to find strength of character, will and no less excellent form and fought back to win the match in five sets, much to the joy of the crowd supporting him on center court. The point is that the Murray / Gasquet match was great, it received great television coverage and those who witnessed the match were able to testify quite comfortably that Murray’s return was genuine and the disappearance of Gasquet% u2019 was as sad as it was unfortunate. It was an epic match and it would have won the best match award save for the incredible final between Nadal and Federer. Unfortunately, it is the low-key matches that attract speculation about match rigging and when strange and unexpected results occur, then of course tongues wag and fingers point and the game we all love is very easily discredited.

Perhaps the bookies should take a look at the Las Vegas books. They reject any bet on tennis unless it is a high profile game in which there can be no doubt about the integrity of the result. This is highly commendable, but is it fair to the true professional tennis sponsor? There are tennis fans who bet on the unexpected, and very often these games are exactly the ones where questions can easily be asked. The difficulty is that there is no complete way to combat the problem anyway, a good player will get as much information about any player that they would like to endorse or indeed endorse. If that player just had a late night the night before, or had a minor injury, or couldn’t be bothered to train, then a good player would do sixteen years at this and play his game. Interestingly, Davydenko is one of those players who sometimes just can’t be bothered and this will be reflected in his game. At the end of the day, you have no need to get involved in match manipulation, you are guaranteed to win millions by virtue of being the number four player in the world, so what does a defeat here and a defeat there mean? u2013 absolutely nothing!

The bookies have a lot to lose if they drop their defenses, but they know full well that a rigged game is unlikely to involve a high-profile player like Davydenko.