Corruption Monkey

Well, I guess today's big tennis news is that Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello have both cleared of allegations of corruption over that match they played in Sopot last year, where Davydenko forfeited and bets were suspended by a major gambling site because the amounts of money being bet on the match were strangely large. (I had no idea people even knew the Sopot tournament existed, let alone bet on it, but there you go.)

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So they're innocent. Good for them. But why on earth did it take the ATP this frigging long to decide that? The Sopot tournament was in June last year. That's nearly fifteen months ago. Can you imagine being a professional tennis player having that hang over your head for that long?

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I suppose it's not too bad for Martin Vassallo Arguello, as no one really knows who he is for a start, and also because he wasn't the one that supposedly threw the match. I know I've been ragging on Kolya for over two months now for being an embarrassment to professional tennis players everywhere what with his poor attitude, but you really have to feel for the guy. If he's innocent - which the ATP has finally decided he is - he's had this monkey on his back for more than a year for no reason. Can you imagine the locker room glares he must have got?

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Actually, that's an interesting issue - what did the players think? Did they assume he was guilty and do some quality shunning? Or did they stand behind him? I haven't been able to find any comments on the subject... surely someone must have asked someone about it in a presser at some stage. I don't get the feeling that Davydenko is one of the locker room's most popular guys... and with the label of 'corruption' hanging over his head, I can't imagine that won him too many new pals either.

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Tennis is supposed to be a gentlemen's game. It's very seldom that you get allegations of match-fixing and stuff like that - even cricket, the other gentlemen's game, has more scandal than tennis does. So I can't imagine Kolya was too pleased to be the one that opened the door. Is this the first match-fixing scandal in tennis? It can't be the only one, surely...

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Oh, and on a happier note, well done to the finalists this weekend! Gilles Simon takes on Carlos Moya in Bucharest, and Tamira Paszek, who upset a few biggish names on the way to the final, takes on Patty Schnyder in Bali. Should be interesting matches both!

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Today's Results

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BCR Open Romania (Bucharest)

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Carlos Moya def. Richard Gasquet, 6-2 6-4

Gilles Simon def. Jose Acasuso, 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4

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Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)

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Tamira Paszek def. Daniela Hantuchova, 6-2 5-7 6-4

Patty Schnyder def. Nadia Petrova, 7-5 6-1