Ban the fixers for life, says Lloyd

His comments follow the International Tennis Federation's vow to step up the fight to rid their sport of illegal gambling after more revelations of players being approached to fix the results of matches.

Belgian Gilles Elseneer claimed in a report this morning that he was offered around £70,000 to throw his Wimbledon first-round match in 2005 against Potito Starace, but immediately refused the advances.

"I think it's absolutely horrendous," Lloyd told BBC Radio Five Live of the prospect that players might be corrupted.

"It's not going to be easy because it's the most difficult thing to police, but we've got to try to stamp this out quickly before any more scandal comes in, because tennis as a sport is potentially so open to a betting scandal because it's a one-on-one sport.

"I think what's got to happen in this respect is that right away the authorities have got to put in penalties that are absolutely 100%.

"Anybody who is caught in any shape or form, they have got to be banned for life with no appeal."

Earlier today ITF committee member Bill Babcock accepted his sport needed to bring players together and increase their policing of the issue in order that it does not continue to develop.

Babcock said: "Our view on the enforcement side of this is whether it is big or small, we have to be alert and jump on it and be vigilant.

"I think there's enough talk out there that we have to get our rules together. We are in the process now of unifying the scope of our rules and resources that can help all of us understand it better.

"We must come together with the players and say this is in all our interests. We need to grasp all of the information that comes our way so that together we kick this corruption out of our sport."

Elseneer won his match in question without dropping a set and said: "I had my honour as a player to protect and Wimbledon meant everything to me.

"They said I should take my time and give them a reply the next day but I only needed a couple of minutes to realise it was impossible for me to contemplate."

Earlier this week Tim Henman said that while he had never been approached directly, he had heard enough other players talking about it to believe that it went on.

ATP Tour officials are still probing suspected irregular betting patterns concerning a match between Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello in Sopot, Poland earlier this year.