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Wimbledon Diary: All bets are off as players receive dire warning on perils of gambling
By Clive White and April Tod, Sunday Telegraph UK
01/07/2007
So concerned are the Association of Tennis Professionals about players betting on their own matches that they issued a memo to all players recently warning them of the perils of match-fixing. And to think that when The Sunday Telegraph first broke this story nearly four years ago the Association of Tennis Professionals, after a brief investigation, categorically denied anything untoward was going on.
Under the headline "ATP Monitoring Gambling and Corruption in the Tennis Industry", the memo stated: "Gambling is an increasing problem among athletes - 25 per cent of this population gamble on a frequent basis. Athletes' competitive nature and the excitement of having something on the line are some of the main reasons they are attracted to gambling.
"You could be the target of organised crime and/or professional gamblers - you are an easier target if you continuously gamble at casinos, online, etc. Be careful whom you associate with. Gambling on your sport and/or match fixing will corrupt the sport and ruin your career. ATP is closely monitoring the tennis gambling industry and will take action when needed. DO NOT - under any circumstances - get involved in any kind of tennis gambling or match fixing."
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During the Wimbledon fortnight Roger Federer will be keenly following the America's Cup fortunes of his home country Switzerland, who are defending the trophy. The Swiss boat Alinghi is owned by his friend Ernesto Bertarelli, who just happened to be in Dubai in March at the same time as Federer, with two America's Cup boats training off the coast of Dubai.
"When I was in Dubai for a tennis tournament, Bertarelli invited me to race on the new boat which was racing against the old boat. It was a lot of fun and it was incredible to see the team spirit and team effort it takes to manoeuvre the boat around," said Federer.
However, according to one member of Alinghi's crew, the Canadian Curtis Blewitt, Federer still needs to learn a few delicate matters about top level racing. "I had to show him how to pee off the back of the boat," he revealed. "He was asking me for the toilet, and I told him you're looking at it. I don't think he'll remember me, but he'll remember the guy who told him that."
For weight reasons America's Cup boats don't carry toilet facilities, referred to as 'heads' in sailing terms!
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The Championships are special to the players for many reasons, not least because, unlike at the other three grand slams, a large chunk of them stay in houses within walking distance of the club, as residents of Wimbledon and Southfields rent their houses out to competitors.
Rather than have their beds made every day by hotel maids, players fend for themselves in quaint English houses and live an English lifestyle - they can be seen jogging near the grounds in the mornings and shopping in local supermarkets. Third seed Andy Roddick took things a step further some years ago, as he ended a night out in typical English fashion - the 24-year-old was seen, with then-coach Tarik Benhabiles, returning home in the early hours of the morning giggling uncontrollably while clutching a traffic cone.
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Since former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash retired he has turned his hand to a variety of different trades - BBC analyst, newspaper columnist, even tennis coach, but he surprised British friends and colleagues when on a Davis Cup trip to the Ukraine last September some of them on the Malev flight to Odessa turned over a page in the Hungarian airline's in-flight magazine to find a picture of him dressed as a postman. In searching the archives for an appropriate snap to accompany a totally irrelevant story about the American postal system they stumbled upon a publicity shot of the Australian suitably dressed as a postie for a Yorkshire charity initiative. And sadly, no, the headline did not mention "Postman Pat".
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Since today is the launch of the anti-smoking legislation it's worth recalling that when the sometimes stateless Jaroslav Drobny and the American JE Patty played out a singles match lasting four-and-a-quarter hours in 1953 they were each presented with a gift as "a memento of one of the outstanding matches in the history of Lawn Tennis" - according to the Wimbledon Compendium: a silver cigarette case. It begs the question, how on earth did they manage to last four hours plus if they both puffed?
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At last December's Lawn Tennis Writers' dinner dance, Andrew Finklestein, a property developer and keen tennis player, bid £1,800 for the chance to have two hours' coaching with Brad Gilbert, Andy Murray's coach, who had offered his services free in aid of charity.
The coaching session finally took place a couple of weeks ago, which Finklestein said afterwards "was an experience of a lifetime. Brad made me laugh a lot, he's such a funny guy, and sometimes it was hard to concentrate on tennis but I learned a lot and so did my wife who also joined in the coaching sessions. More importantly she thought it was money well spent!" |
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发表于 2007-7-2 00:30
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