has been quietly addressing this potential threat to the sport for the past couple years, e.g. the ATP had a former MOB leader who had spoken to players in other major American sports leagues address ATP players back in March.  With the recent news, the ATP has reacted swiftly and strongly.  According to the ATP’s chairman, Etienne de Villers, "The rules allow us to impose anything up to a life ban as a sanction and we will have a zero tolerance policy towards anyone found to have broken those rules…"   Tennis should look to other major sports leagues for guidance in handling this matter because betting on sports is not a new issue and well-known players such as former baseball legend, Pete Rose, have had their careers tarnished by betting scandals.  One challenge for tennis will be to determine what is poor play or a real injury versus “tanking.”  Tennis is an individual sport and players compete week after week with brief breaks making it sometimes hard to reconcile a “bad day” at the office versus a cause for concern that a match was “fixed.”  It would be naïve to deny that players have been approached and money has been offered given the high stakes and global publicity surrounding professional tennis.  However, hopefully players will focus on the good of the game or the fear of sanctions such as a lifetime ban and “think again” before ever allowing a professional tennis match to be “fixed.”  To compromise their morals would be to irreparably damage their careers and the sport they’ve played their whole life.  Isn’t there enough money to be made these days playing professional tennis?

Posted by TC at 08:35 AM || Comments (0)