By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : Former ATP president Vijay Amritraj gave a clean chit to tennis and asserted that the talk about match-fixing in the sport is “completely obscene and rubbish”.
Speaking on the sidelines draw ceremony of the USD 436,000 Chennai Open Tennis here Saturday, Amritraj said that although three Italian players were suspended on charges of match-fixing, tennis was relatively free of players deliberately “tanking” matches for money.
“The golden standard in tennis is the ATP Computer. For every player, points are crucial and no amount of money will challenge that,” said Amritraj who was repeatedly queried on the subject.
Barely hiding his irritation, Amritraj added: “All this continuing talk about match-fixing in tennis is like making mountain of a molehill. I say again that tennis is a clean sport.”
Offering supporting view was the Chennai Open tournament director Fernando Soler who said: “Betting does not equate to match-fixing.”
When asked about the reported move by Tennis Australia to closely monitor players participating in the next month’s Australian Open, with the help of local police and designated officials, Soler said: “Well, those are the steps they (Tennis Australia) have taken to ensure that the sport is free of any such acts.”
Earlier this year, match-fixing controversy surfaced when Gilles Elseneer of Belgium said he was offered – and turned down – more than US$100,000 to lose a first-round match against Potito Starace of Italy at Wimbledon in 2005.
Also, in August, a match between World No.4 Russian Nikolay Davydenko and lowly-ranked Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello in Poland was voided by British online betting exchange Betfair because of unusual betting patterns. The incident drew attention of the authorities on the possible existence of match-fixing.
Several players, including former Australian Open runner-up Arnaud Clement, have since said they had turned down offers to throw matches in exchange for money.
A former top-10 player, Mariano Puerta, returned to action last June after a two-year suspension for doping, his second ban.
Puerta, who had previously served a nine-month suspension, tested positive for the banned stimulant Etilefrine after his loss to Rafael Nadal in the 2005 French Open final. He had tested positive for anabolic agent clenbuterol in 2003.
Tennis also suffered a setback when former World No.1 Martina Hingis announced she was retiring after testing positive for cocaine.