ATP sets penalties for withdrawals

ATP sets penalties for withdrawals

	Published : Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:52 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Already dealing with a gambling investigation, the men's tennis tour is confronting another issue facing the sport by instituting fines and suspensions for players who fail to show up at top tournaments without a good excuse.

'We are going to be fair here. Players have expressed concerns about this. This is not the best news they have ever had,' ATP chairman Etienne de Villiers said Friday at the U.S. Open. 'No turkeys vote for Thanksgiving.'

De Villiers also addressed the specter of gambling, which arose in early August when an online betting company suspended more than $7 million in wagers on a match involving No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.

Asked why Davydenko hasn't been questioned yet by the two former Scotland Yard investigators leading the probe, de Villiers said: 'These are very experienced investigators who feel they need to have as much information as they need before they go and interview somebody.'

Tour rules in place since 2003 bar players or members of their entourages from betting on tennis or providing inside information to others, with penalties of $100,000 fines and lifetime bans.

Now the tour's board will consider a new rule that would punish anyone who fails to report any information about someone else's possible gambling activity.

'Trust me, if we find anyone -- be it a player, entourage, anyone -- they will have the maximum ban imposed. There's going to be zero tolerance here,' de Villiers said.

He said the tour investigates 'every single rumor,' but he was 'not prepared to discuss' how many inquiries are in progress.

Since the Davydenko match, some players have come forward to say they have been offered money to influence the outcome of a match. Others have said they have heard of such offers to others.

When Davydenko played No. 87-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello, most of the money backed Arguello -- even after Davydenko won the first set. In the third set, Davydenko stopped playing, citing a foot injury.

Players who drop out of tournaments altogether has become a concern for fans and promoters. So starting in 2009, if an independent medical panel decides someone was not too injured to compete at one of eight mandatory tournaments, a top-20 player would lose part of his share from the tour's $7.5 million bonus pool.

In addition, such an 'unexcused absence' would draw a suspension from the mandatory tournament where that player had the most success the previous year.

De Villiers also announced that, as of 2009, the ATP is dropping its Masters Series title and logo, instead calling the elite events '1,000' tournaments because that's the number of ranking points the champion gets. Those eight events will be in Indian Wells, Calif.; Miami; Rome; Madrid, Spain; Cincinnati; Toronto/Montreal; Shanghai, China; and Paris.

The Monte Carlo tournament also will be considered a '1,000' tournament, but unlike the other eight will not be mandatory.

'Simply put, from 2009, our fans both on-site and at home will be guaranteed to see the best players in all our best tournaments in the best places, in the best markets,' de Villiers said.

By 2011, six of the top events -- in Indian Wells, Miami, Rome, Cincinnati and Toronto/Montreal -- will be joint ATP-WTA events.