"For more than a year now, Nikolay Davydenko, the fifth seed at the U.S. Open, has played under the onus of an investigation into the suspicious Internet betting patterns associated with his match against Martin Arguello in Poland last August.
Appeals by Davydenko's lawyer have extended the investigation, but the Association of Tennis Professionals says it is committed to thoroughly carrying out the probe of what is known as the 'Sopot Match' because of the threat of corruption that betting, especially Internet betting, poses to the sport.
'We need to take as long it takes to determine if someone was involved,' said Kris Dent, the ATP's director of corporate communications. 'The absolute bottom line for the ATP is that integrity is the most important aspect of our game, and that tennis has to be viewed as clean and without any hint of corruption.'
To that end, the ruling bodies of tennis recently announced the creation of the Integrity Unit, an independent investigatory and prosecutorial arm that will be headed by former Scotland Yard detective Jeff Rees. The ATP, the Women's Tennis Association, the International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam Committee have agreed to support the unit and operate under the same set of rules and penalties."
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
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