Suspicious Davydenko loss sparks match-fix fears on ATP

Russia's Davydenko won the opening set at Sopot, Poland, against number 87 Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-2, then suddenly pulled out claiming a foot injury to hand the outsider a 2-6, 6-3, 2-1 result.

 London's Betfair agency on Thursday immediately suspended payouts before voiding all bets on Friday in an unprecedented move as part of a 2003 agreement with the sanctioning ATP to report suspicious punting.

 Davydenko, who has since left Poland and is due to play from Sunday in the Montreal Masters, has lost five matches and won just one since Wimbledon. Journeyman Arguello successively lost a quarter-final on Friday to Spain's Albert Montanes 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

 An ATP spokesman told London's Guardian: "The ATP takes issues surrounding gambling extremely seriously. We are committed to ensuring our sport remains corruption free and have strict rules in place governing this area.

 "It would be inappropriate for us to comment further on any individual match or on the status of any potential investigation until such time as the process has been completed."

   Betfair, an exchange where punters offer each other odds on matches, said that turnover on the second-round contest totalled more than 7 million dollars in a contest where Davydenko should have been a heavy favourite.

 That amount is around ten times the normal bet for a match at this level, officials said.

 "It's not so much the amount that was bet, it's the prices at which they were bet," an official from Betfair told the BBC, adding, "Davydenko won the first set but during the course of winning it, his price drifted out not in.

 "That doesn't strike us as a normal betting pattern. We have suspended payouts and we will consider what we can do in order to ensure fairness and transparency."

   Davydenko was defending the Sopot title. The Monte Carlo-based Russian plays one of the longest schedules among Top ten players by far on the ATP.

 "Normally I try to fight to the end but it was very painful and I may have done even more damage by trying to finish the match," he Davydenko after the match. "Since the beginning of Monday I've had a problem with my left toes. Today that became a problem with my foot."

   The last public disclosure of Betfair having concerns over the integrity of a match occurred in 2006 in irregular betting patterns surrounding a first-round Wimbledon match between Briton Richard Bloomfield and Argentine Carlos Berlocq.

 Berlocq, ranked 170 spot higher, lost in three sets, but no more action was taken after the origin suspicions became known.

DPA