Match-fixing in tennis has spread into the women's game

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Attempts by criminal gambling syndicates to fix women's tennis matches have been uncovered, it was revealed on Thursday.

Gang members have approached players on numerous occasions this year to throw matches or give inside information.

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Clean up: LTA chief executive Scott, Koryttseva (inset, top) and Poutchek (inset, below)

This was disclosed by Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, who said the players themselves had told authorities about the illegal efforts to fix matches.

Until now, reports of match-fixing in the sport has been largely limited to the men's tour, but it appears that the women have not been immune to the threat either.

Scott told Sportsmail that from their perspective the issue seems to have suddenly raised its head this year, leading to the sport's various governing bodies uniting to tackle the problem.

The formation of a special unit to investigate the whole issue is expected to be finalised before the start of next season.

'What is unfortunate is that there have been an awful lot of approaches,' he said.

'We have had quite a few players come to us to let us know that they have been approached and asked to throw a match or for information about form.

'The revelation this year has been the amount of gambling that is actually happening on tennis and the amount of approaches to players.'

While unwilling to put a figure on the amount of reports to officials from players, Scott described it as being 'more than a handful' and that it involved those from a limited amount of countries'.

'We have got particular concerns about Russia, there's a lot of activity that comes out of there but it is not the only country,' he said.

'I can only speak for women's tennis but I don't think the problem is widespread and would not say that there is a major problem because the players have been very responsible, they have come to us rather than the Press.

'We are not aware of anyone having fixed a match and in the whole of tennis there is absolutely no proof that it has happened.

'We had players come to us about it earlier this year and we started talking to players in meetings around April. At Wimbledon I called for the game to come together and address this.

'It's very unfortunate that we live in an age where gambling threatens the integrity of sport. We need to redouble our efforts.'

Scott has presided over the recent success of the women's game, which has commercially flourished and avoided the controversies that the ATP Tour have suffered over doping and match-fixing.

The only hint of scandal so far on the women's tour came in September when betting exchange Betfair briefly held back payment on bets involving a match between Ukraine's Mariya Koryttseva and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus at the Sunfeast Open in Calcutta.

The whole matter was brought to the forefront by the cancellation of payouts in August of the match involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello at the Poland Open due to suspicious betting patterns. The inquiry into that is said to be making painfully slow progress, with investigators struggling against the Russian's German legal team, and no outcome is expected until well into next year.

The fact that the scale of approaches is only just emerging shows an impressive discipline and loyalty on the women's part to their own tour, which contrasts with that of the men. The ATP players have drip-fed revelations to the media detailing episodes with anonymous figures.

Billie-Jean King, the Godmother of women's tennis, said that she could not believe there might have been such goings-on with her players but Scott's frank admissions are doubtless nearer the truth.

 

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