LONDON (AP) — With tennis in the midst of a major gambling investigation, a British bookmaker said Monday match-fixing will never be stopped.
"There is always a way," William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said. "There will never be a foolproof system. Whatever rule you have in place, they’ll find a way around it."
The four major governing bodies of professional tennis — the ATP, WTA Tour, International Tennis Federation and Grand Slam Committee — are trying to come up with a unified set of regulations to keep corruption out of the sport.
U.S. Open finalist Novak Djokovic said Monday from the Madrid Masters that he never had been approached by gamblers, despite reports that he was offered money to lose a match in Russia last year.
"I’ve seen a lot of stories about gambling in tennis, but I have to say that nobody ever spoke to me about that," Djokovic said. "I was not involved in anything even though there were some stories that I was involved. … It was a made up story."
Last week, a document listing about 150 matches considered to be suspicious was given to the ATP, then sent to other tennis officials. According to that document, some players retired from matches to void bets.
Sharpe said that tactic wouldn’t work for long.
"You’ve got nothing to gain by doing that. It would very soon reflect on the player," he said. "As a plausible betting scam, you would want to be sure the other player wins … not by pulling out through injury."
Online betting exchange Betfair, however, considers one player to be the winner as long as one set is completed.
"The result stands as long as one set’s played," Betfair spokesman Adrian Murdock said. "The retirement is considered a victory for the other person."
Other reasons for a player losing, according to the document, included illness and the desire to leave a tournament early.
Professional players are not allowed to gamble on tennis, but the ATP has been investigating an August match at a minor tournament in Poland.
In that match, fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko withdrew in the third set against 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello. An online betting site, in an unprecedented move, then voided bets because of suspicious betting patterns.
"I can’t comment on specifics of an ongoing investigation, but procedures are laid out in the ATP rule book," ATP spokesman Kris Dent said Monday.
Since the Davydenko match, others have said they were approached by outsiders trying to influence a match. Last month, Belgian player Gilles Elseneer 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.
On the women’s tour, a September match drew suspicion for unusual betting patterns.
An online betting site briefly delayed payment after 120th-ranked Mariya Koryttseva beat No. 96 Tatiana Poutchek in the quarter-finals of a tournament in India. Eventually, bets were paid, and the WTA and the betting site said they doubt there was any wrongdoing.
Andy Murray implied last week that match-fixing was common knowledge, but the 17th-ranked Briton has twice backtracked on his original comments.
"I’m just glad it’s kind of been cleared up," Murray said at the Madrid Masters, where he beat Radek Stepanek in the first round. "I’m meeting up with the ATP tomorrow to chat with them, but I don’t really have anything new to tell them."