Tennis Match-Fixing? Don’t Believe It

The 2007 tennis season has come and gone.

On the men's side, numbers one and two remained the same. They both successfully defended their Slam titles from 2006. Everyone else played catch-up. David Nalbandian surged too little too late. Novak Djokovic confirmed his status as the best challenger of the next Slam title. It all ended in China Sunday when Roger Federer stamped the confirmation on what we already knew; he is still the best player in the world.

On the women's side, it was a year of up-and-downs. Serena Williams surprised everyone, including the John McEnroe's and Pat Cash's of the world by winning the Australian Open. Neither Serena nor sister Venus could, however, find a solution to Justine Henin's dominance on the year. Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic provided some sparks. Lindsay Davenport made a comeback. Martina Hingis made an exit.

What? I left something out?

Oh, that's right! How dare I leave out the extraordinary corruption charges stifling the world of ATP? Stop the press! Please...

In a steady-but-flat season such as this one, all tennis media outlets resorted to the same cheap pattern that is used in any other sport; let's find some disturbing fact, warrant it far more attention than it deserves, make the responsible organs feel like Mr. Paranoia is knocking on the door about to move into their house, and make them agitated so that they overreact. And now, lo and behold, we have a story, folks!

And the powers that be played right into their hands. The fine given to Nikolay Davydenko for "lack of effort" was the most ridiculous thing that I have heard since Snauwaert's ErgoNom tennis rackets. The man wins the first set easy, loses the second set close, and then is fined for throwing away the third? Don't they see this happen all the time? This is recurring pattern in tennis tournaments, and it does not necessarily mean that the match was thrown away. Had he lost 6-1, 6-0 in 42 minutes, then I could understand. But then you better start by giving Roger Federer a fine, too, unless you were in another planet when he played Filippo Volandri in Rome.

I will make it even easier on the ATP and even give them a Russian target, since they seem to be popular group to scrutinize for the governing body, but you are over six years late on this one; watch Yevgeny Kafelnikov lose to Hugo Armando 6-1, 6-1 in Kitzbuhel, Austria. As someone who was there to watch that fiasco live, I can attest that Kafelnikov wanted to leave that court and that town at warp speed during the five-minute warm-up already.

I know if we go back far enough, we can find much worse. But my point is this: not only did the ATP fall into the trap and let Mr. Paranoia in, but it slept in the same bed.

In tennis, where theoretically it would be easy to seduce a player into a fixed match, in actuality very little of it goes on, if any. First of all, it is a very close group of people. Most players hang out together, they know each other's private lives and habits, and for the most part lead responsible daily lives in comparison with what athletes do in other popular sports.

For any tennis player to get involved in a match-fixing scheme, he would have to be a loner on the tour, be in constant contact with his partners in crime, and yet make sure that nobody else knows about it. To top it all, he would have to pull a masterful act to lose a match willingly and still make it look legitimate. Furthermore, since once you get involved in this scheme, you will not be left alone (à la Al Pacino in Godfather III, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in"), you would have to be able to pull that same masterful act, several times without being noticed. Because in the professional tennis fraternity, the player gets involved in this type of scheme and the word gets out, he may as well move to Galapagos and hang out with Lonesome George.

It's just not that easy. Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement of France were probably telling the truth about being approached. They were also telling the truth when they said that they hung up the phone and did not even talk to them. Tennis players are intelligent and the one or two idiots that will make the mistake should not be considered the norm and be launched in the world of sports news as a problem "invading all circles of tennis." Get real!

The ATP is actually on the right path in their preventive approach to the problem. They are collaborating with British betting sites to keep a closer eye on betting patterns and they are setting tough measures against those players who would get caught. They even had a now-repented ex-mafia person come and talk about how the players may be sucked into one of these schemes.

Where they went wrong was publicizing the whole charade. There was no need to issue a foolish fine for Davydenko for "lack of effort." There was no need to announce that the matches in the ATP Paris Masters event were being "policed" by a group of experts and ex-players to see if they can detect a match-fixing in progress. All this is done in the name of complying with the popular view that "the ATP is attacking the problem?" Big mistake. Now you have people who never followed a day of tennis in their lives calling the sport "crooked." You can't blame them either when the ATP is the one having a crow's party over the issue.

Even ATP President Etienne de Villiers adds fuel to the fire. There is nothing wrong with him announcing to the Associated Press on Friday that "nothing is more important than the integrity and honesty of the sport." However, there is something wrong, Mr. President, when you announce that you have chosen a "new anti-corruption chief," but you will not reveal the identity of the person. This isn't a covert operation, is it? There is something wrong when you try to give flashy quotes like, "Where there is money, there is temptation, where there is temptation, there is greed, where there is greed, there is crime," unless you think ratings and Hollywood-style drama is just as important as the integrity and honesty of the sport.

All these measures should be taken efficiently, but quietly. Superfluous publicity to show off the ATP's righteousness tarnishes the players and the reputation of the sport. It creates the wrong impression on the magnitude of the problem. Hence, the fight to keep tennis respectable in the eyes of the world becomes self-defeating.