Madrid, Oct 14: The ATP's top official has slammed the door on tennis gambling on the Internet, sending the message that any hint of match-fixing among players will not be tolerated. Mark Miles, attending this week's Masters Series event, also targeted the betting public as reports of possible involvement of some players in rigged results surface.
"We did not invite punters into this sport," he said yesterday.
"If there's anything further we can do to escort them out, we'd be happy to do that. The existence of technology that allows people to bet freely on sports is not a good thing for society. But obviously, it's a difficult thing to control," he said. Miles, attending this week's penultimate Masters Series event, said that the men's sanctioning body will do its utmost to get to the bottom of any activity which might involve ATP players throwing matches for financial gain.
The potential bombshell has been in the rumour stage since the summer. It was brought into the open Sunday in the British press with an allegation that Spain's Feliciano Lopez had thrown a match against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in long island in August. Mindful of speculation, the ATP only recently signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the British-based firm Betfair.
The arrangement allows the ATP access to betting records in suspicious cases. Bureau Report