The Fix - the Facts

I guess I should blame my parents and the values they have instilled in me, but nothing makes my blood boil faster than dirty cheating scumbags making easy money by foul means rather than fair. So when the match fixing cries came raining down after the Davydenko v Vassallo-Arguello tennis match last week I took more than a little passing interest even though (thankfully) I had no financial involvement.

Tennis has a problem, and it's a problem that has the potential to drag the sport's credibility down to Tour De France levels. Fixing a tennis match is relatively easy - it's a contest between only two players and if there is a nudge nudge wink wink agreement it is easy to arrange and difficult to prove. Suspicions of match fixing rear their head from time to time, but what should worry the ATP is the frequency of these suspicions are on the increase, with more than a few examples recently in the lull between the grass swing and the North American hardcourt circuit, as players kick their heels (or in Davydenko's case, stub their left toe) in a few meaningless clay court tournaments.

The subject has found its way into the mainstream press rather than the dark hallways of betting forums as Betfair took the extraordinary step of voiding all bets on that match last week, after the event. When you think about it - it is quite a breathtaking step and it would be easy to devote a full post to this as there is much debate about the rights and wrongs of that decision as there is about the actual match. In many ways a betting exchange is like a stock exchange, yet when financial markets are tainted by insider trading, you send the culprits to jail but you don't recompense the mum-and-dad investors unwittingly caught up in the mess, however that is what Betfair have in essence done.

Another subject for another time maybe, but I want to get back to the dirty cheating scumbags if you don't mind. And in my mind, there is no doubt both Davydenko and Vassallo-Arguello qualify. Let's review the circumstances surrounding the match at Sopot last week:

Davydenko had been in poor form leading up to the tournament where he was defending champion, having lost three first-round encounters on clay since his fourth-round exit at Wimbledon. During his first-round victory at Sopot against Pavel, he reporetdly picked up an injury to his left toe. So it is in the realms of possibility that some people would take a punt that Davydenko would be vulnerable in his match-up with V-A, although that does ignore the fact that V-A is a journeyman at best and his peformance the day before in beating a fellow Argentinian ranked 256 was a struggle. As the preview from Tennis Form noted:

"If the match is straight, then I would expect Davydenko to ... come through with ease"

Yes, it's got to the stage where those who know something about tennis can smell a potential fix - Tennis Form started their preview with "I expect plenty of bookmakers to swerve this one", an admission of both player's previous form when it comes to nudging and winking, but more about that later.

Davydenko opened up a $1.20 favourite for the match but by the time a ball was hit in anger, had blown out to around $2.30. A favourite drifting is nothing uncommon, especially one under an injury cloud, but by that amount? The starting price for Davydenko's first-round losses in the preceding three weeks were $1.37, $1.17 and $1.35, incidentally against higher-ranked opposition. $2.30 is definitely starting to resemble the stench of rotting fish.

But this pales into insignificance compared to what happened during the first set. Let's review both the playing and betting action:

1. Davydenko won the first set 6-2;
2. Vassallo-Arguello was playing so shyte that he could only hit 2 winners in those 8 games;
3. V-A called a trainer for a nose bleed;
4. Davydenko showed no signs of his toe injury;

Yet:

1. Davydenko continued to drift during the set, with V-A remaining the favourite upon its completion;
2. One or more punters kept queueing up with five-figure amounts (that's UK pounds by the way) to back the Argentinian;
3. By the time the match was "complete", the turnover on Betfair was 3.5 million pounds, reportedly 10 times (although I think that's an exaggeration) the amount usually bet on second-round matches in nobody-cares ATP tournaments.

And if you want any more proof, we have to consider prior history. M'lud, I present two exhibits:

1. Davydenko v Sargsian First-Round Gstaad Open 2005

Davydenko retired in the second set (whilst leading 6-1, 1-0) against his reported good friend Sargsian, apparently with a re-occurence of a wrist injury he had sustained at Wimbledon. Australian betting website On The Punt noted a European bookmaker taking a 5000 Euro bet on Sargsian (who was at odds of around $6.50) five minutes before the match started, and traced the IP address of the bet placed over the internet to the official player hotel in Gstaad. Another bookmaker refused to payout winning bets on the match, citing a rarely used rule that protects them "where evidence exists of rigging or some other act which has unfairly affected the result".

(while you're at OTP, read what they have to say about last week)

2. Davydenko v Moodie Second-Round St Petersburg 2006

Perhaps not so conclusive, but when a $1.12 favourite retires with an ankle injury whilst leading 6-2, 3-3 in a best of 3 set match, I smell smoke. Davydenko reportedly suffered a sprain in the first set whilst leading 4-2. Strange, didn't seem to affect him so much - why retire when only 3 games away from winning? And of course, the injury was so bad that the next week, he went out and won the BNP Paris Masters.

There is one final colour I want to use in painting this pretty picture. The ATP website provides a blog by differing players, and last year Davydenko was the blogger from the Beijing Open. Some of his comments in his blog come across to me as quite revealing:

Early in the week, we learn about his girlfriend, her wants of shopping and sightseeing and how Davydenko chose to go shopping "to stay in her good books", instead of resting/sleeping at the hotel. He writes "You might be thinking with a big Davis Cup semifinal tie against the United States coming up, next week, is my focus on that? The answer is no. My mind is only on this tournament in China. I am only interested in what I do now.", then states in the next paragraph "If I lose tonight, I have all day tomorrow to see everything in Beijing! The Chinese Wall and everything that I want to see."

Then after telling us he prefers day matches to those under lights, he retires against Paradorn Srichaphan in a night match (and whaddya know, retiring one match into the second set), saying: "I am sorry that I had to retire tonight but my body did not have any energy. I do not have any injury, but at night because of the 12-hour difference with America, I feel completely dead."

Thankfully the blog doesn't end there. Guess what this "completely dead" tennis player does when he wakes up the next morning? Why, goes to the Great Wall of course!

"We started to go up steps, not knowing how far we could walk. The beginning was steep; every 40 meters we would take a break. Irina said she was dying and couldn’t get to the finish, or at least as far as the eye could see.
The first 400-500 meters were just steps. We spent one and a half hours going up – around 1,000 steps. We recovered and took some photos. "

What amazing powers of recovery - completely dead from a night tennis match to walking up 1000 steps of the Great Wall the next morning with an important Davis Cup tie on the horizon.

I especially like this bit:

"It was hot on the ascent, but our Russian mentality told us to finish."

Pity your "Russian mentality" doesn't tell you to finish your tennis matches, buddy. Which reminds me of a Davydenko quote from last week:

"Normally I never retire because I like to fight."

I'd like to put up the list of matches Davydenko has retired from (mostly early in the second set - which of course has nothing to do with the fact that some bookmakers only pay out on tennis match results if one set has been completed), but this post is already long enough.

Well you don't have to be Einstein to gather what side of the fence I come down on when musing about Davydenko's alleged involvement in fixing tennis matches. And in case you're wondering why a top 10 tennis player earning millions of dollars would feel the need to do this, have a look at who likes to get friendly with Russian tennis players.

Kafelnikov, Sargsian and Labadze are tennis players from the former Soviet Republic who have had suspicions of being involved in fixed matches. You can add another name to the list. And in an ideal world, you'd hope the ATP would have the balls to kick the dirty cheating scumbag (and there are others) out of the sport. But that won't happen, citing a lack of proof.

Still, the shenanigans of last week might sow the seeds of doubt into the minds of the mobsters and the players they control, and they may realise there may be easier ways to scam money than trying to fleece punters who are starting to get sick of the arse-rogering they sometimes take on fixed tennis matches. Here's hoping.