Jun 22, 2008, 18:51 GMT
London - Authorities at the Wimbledon Championships will be on high alert when the Grand Slam begins on Monday after newspaper revelations of suspected match-fixing at last year's edition. In an exclusive report, the Sunday Times said that ATP-appointed investigators have had access to a secret report complied for internal use by online bookmaking companies detailing suspicious matches.
It identified eight contests - half from 2007 men's singles rounds - which they believe could have been fixed, each involving foreign players who lost in three straight sets.
The separate ATP report, released in May after months of probing, concluded there was not evidence of serious evidence of corruption within the sport. But it did report that 45 matches over the past five years may have been tampered with for gambling purposes.
None of those were made public.
The newspaper said that among those suspected by market makers of playing in dicey matches are competitors from Argentina, Russia, Italy, Spain and and Austria.
As a result, Wimbledon's already draconian security has been stepped up, with only players and their coaches allowed into the inner sanctum of the locker room.
Still floating in the wind is world number four Nikolay Davydenko, whose surprise loss ten months ago in Poland to Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello is the highest-profile match under probe.
More than seven million dollars was bet on the little-known South American even after Davydenko won the first set, later retiring with a foot injury. Both players have protested their innocence and an ATP investigation has yet to produce any public result.
Wimbledon is a prime target for punters around the world, with tennis generally ranked third behind football and horse racing for gambling activity.
A source quoters by the Sunday Times said: 'If you look at a tournament, you might see one match for sterling 23,000 (45,000 dollars) (in betting turnover], one for 27,000 (53,000 dollars), one for 36,000 (70,000 dollars) and one for 4.5 million (8.8 million dollars).
'It doesn't take a genius to work out that something is going on in the last one.'
A reported sun of more that 450 million pounds (880 million dollars) was bet last year at Wimbledon over just won internet punting site, the newspaper said.
'The result was decided before the players came onto court,' a source told the newspaper. 'They all conform to the same pattern. There is a very dramatic shift in the market and there are enormous volumes traded.'
The Sunday Times quoted Grand Slam tournament co-ordinator Bill Babcock as saying: 'We have systems to examine unusual betting activities and as soon as we receive notice we look at each case that has been brought to our attention.'
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