WTA chief admits difficult to stop gambling on tennis

MELBOURNE: WTA chief Larry Scott has admitted it will be almost impossible to stamp out gambling on tennis matches, and said severe penalties were the solution.   

In comments in the Melbourne Age newspaper on Tuesday, he said the corruption issue was more serious than was generally thought to be the case a year ago.    

"We realised after about the first quarter of last year that there was a lot more gambling happening in tennis than we had previously been aware of, and it was concerning," Scott said.    

"The numbers that people are gambling on tennis is extraordinary; what we also realised early into last year was that there were approaches being made to our players, at a level we hadn't previously been aware of."   

Last week, the men's and women's tours joined forces with the organisers of the four Grand Slams and the International Tennis Federation to announce a review of the sport's anti-corruption policies.    Investigators Jeffrey Rees and Ben Gunn are at the Australian Open.    

Both are experienced former British police officers. Rees established the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption unit, while Gunn led a group to examine the integrity of the British horse racing industry.    

While investigations continue, Scott admitted that it would be hard to entirely rid the sport of corruption.   

"We're not going to stop gambling happening on tennis, we're not going to stop people trying to cheat, that's, unfortunately, life." he said. "There will be people who feel some temptation to try to influence our players or people around our players, but that's true of doping, too.    

"What I think we can do is have very severe penalties that act as a deterrent, we can take very seriously and put resources behind investigating and policing it."   

Earlier this week, vice-president of the ATP's player council, James Blake, called for any tennis player involved in corruption to be banned for life.  "I think if someone was betting on their own matches, I would not be opposed to a lifetime ban," he said.   

"I think every situation may be different, so we have to have a tribunal ... anything like that where it's having an effect on matches, I think that's something that could deserve a lifetime ban."    Scott, who ran the men's tour before joining the WTA in 2003, has voiced similar sentiments.   

He earlier said that anti-corruption would be 'the first item on the agenda' when he addressed 250 players before the start of the Australian Open.   

A handful of players have in recent months reported being approached about match fixing or have heard of similar approaches to others.   

The issue was brought to the fore last August when an online betting site voided all wagers on a match in Poland between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello because of irregular betting patterns.    

Davydenko withdrew from the match in the third set, citing a foot injury. Both players have denied any wrongdoing.