List of suspect matches heightens tennis buzz

LONDON -- One disquieting subject, four governing bodies and one potentially lurid dossier make for one momentous tennis meeting today in southwest London.

The subject is alleged match-fixing, a topic blaring since August but cresting this week after some comments 18th-ranked Andy Murray of Scotland made to BBC Radio.

The ATP, which governs men’s tennis, the WTA, which oversees women’s tennis, the International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam Committee, which has authority over the four biggest tournaments, are scheduled to convene at ITF headquarters to forge a unified structure for combating the specter of match-fixing.

The dossier lists up to 150 matches, including some Grand Slams, dating to 2002 that a British bookmaker cited as suspicious.

“We were in receipt of the document yesterday, and it has been sent to the relevant authorities within tennis,” ATP spokesman Kris Dent said Thursday.

Although the dossier has stirred a buzz here, the same information on nearly two dozen of those matches was available as far back as early August on the website onthepunt.com.

That list of matches also cited the methods of alleged subterfuge, including suspected cases of players retiring while sensing defeat to protect the money of those who bet on them, which then would be returned.

In late August, as the contentions gained credence with more players speaking out, Dent said the investigation was “going to take time. We are determined to leave no stone unturned.”

Then this week, things heated up. News of today’s meeting came only one day after Murray joined a list of players who say the sport has a problem.

He told the BBC on Tuesday, “It’s difficult to prove if someone has tanked a match or not tried because they can try their best until the last couple of games of each set and then make some mistakes, a couple of double faults, and that’s it. It’s pretty disappointing for all the players, but everyone knows it goes on.”

On Thursday, he was asked to elaborate. “I’m not going to name names,” Murray said in Moscow, where he was upset in the second round of the Kremlin Cup. “I’ve just spoken to quite a lot of the players about that, and there’s obviously something that needs to be addressed.”

Some players rejected his allegations.

“I doubt Murray knows more than anybody else,” the No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain said. “He’s gone overboard and there are no fixed games.”

A more stinging response came from Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, the No. 4-ranked player still under investigation for a match against Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina on Aug. 2 in Poland. In that match, Davydenko’s retirement early in the third set after heavy wagering on Vassallo Arguello prompted the London bookmaker Betfair to void all wagers.

After reaching the quarterfinals of a tournament in Moscow on Thursday, Davydenko said in a news conference, “If Murray says that, that means he gambles himself. Because people who start talking out loud have their fears disappear. And they know if they speak out loud it means that they are free, they have not done it.

“Since Murray was describing in details how it all goes on, it means that he went deep into it. As if he was never involved in it, but he knows how it all works in details. It was folly of him to say this.”

Late Thursday, Murray posted on his website: “When I said, ‘Everyone knows that it’s going on,’ I meant that everyone has probably heard that three or four players have spoken out about being offered money to lose matches -- which they refused. I am glad that the tennis governing bodies are coming together to set up an anti-corruption unit to address this and I stand fully behind this effort.”

As ITF executive director Bill Babcock told the Associated Press, “Tennis is vulnerable,” a view widely acknowledged among bookmakers because one player has so much influence over the outcome.

Bookmakers such as Betfair have departments whose primary purpose is to monitor wagering patterns for irregularities, such as when money shifted dramatically to No. 87 Arguello just before his match with the top-five Davydenko, then shifted even more heavily after Arguello lost the first set.

Not long after the Davydenko-Arguello match, onthepunt.com listed suspected matches.

Onthepunt.com also had this warning: “Again, these are allegations only, made by those involved in bookmaking or wagering in tennis on a daily basis. No specific conclusions can be drawn about any involvement or intent on the part of the losing or winning player.”

The Davydenko controversy mushroomed at the next tour stop in Montreal -- where the men’s top players had gathered for the Rogers Cup -- with a series of explosive disclosures.

Bob Bryan of Camarillo, one of the sport’s leading doubles players, told The Times that some colleagues received anonymous phone calls asking them to manipulate the outcomes of matches. Days later, prominent coach Larry Stefanki, who has been working with Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez, reported being pressed for inside information about another competitor during the Australian Open in January.

The eventual U.S. Open finalist Novak Djokovic said in Montreal that tennis has a gambling problem.

Bryan’s revelations gained support at the U.S. Open when a series of players, including Paul Goldstein and Dmitry Tursunov, recounted receiving offers of money to influence matches. Additionally, the French sports daily L’Equipe quoted two unnamed players saying they had received bribe offers and witnessed matches being thrown.

Tenth-ranked Tomas Berdych, also at the U.S. Open, said he too had heard players were approached at events in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Of the Davydenko case, he said, “The situation, it’s really bad.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com