Next Sports Scandal: ATP Tennis

Move over basketball, baseball and football, there's a new corrupt sport in town: tennis.

Officials have confirmed they are investigating suspicious betting patterns on a match involving top-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who retired with an injury against a low-ranked opponent at an ATP tournament in Poland.

In an unprecedented move Friday, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets placed the match, saying the market wasn't fair.

Betfair said it received about US$7 million in bets on the match — 10 times the usual amount — and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.

Davydenko's agent, denied the 26-year-old player had any connection to the betting.

First clue Davydenko might be cheating: this is the racquet he used for the match.

Player reaction was mixed. American Andy Roddick, reached after a quarter-final win, was furious.

"If something is found that's shady, I for one will be extremely pissed off. It's too bad it takes only one idiot to tip things off and create a bad story."

But fellow Russian Marat Safin, the 2000 US Open and 2005 Australian Open champion, apparently could give a shit. Of course, he was interviewed right after he lost his quarter-final match, so maybe his reaction was slightly affected.

"To be honest, I don't really care. Whatever people do and whatever they want to do, I don't care. If the world collapses, I don't really care. I have enough problems myself. I can't worry about other people's problems."

Toss some "Lara's Theme" behind that dialogue, and you got yourself a Russian epic.

I'm with Safir. C'mon, it's tennis, who cares? I say, let's be done with this and return to the truly important sports issue of the day: saving puppies.

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