Belgian offered Wimbledon bribe
Belgian offered Wimbledon bribe 
By Leo Schlink
Former Australian Captain September 28, 2007
THE tennis gambling scandal widened yesterday with revelations Belgian Gilles Elseneer was offered money to throw a match at Wimbledon. And Elseneer’s compatriot Dick Norman said he had been asked to provide locker room information on player injuries in return for cash from punters.
News of the approaches follows an illegal $255,000 incentive offered to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic to deliberately lose in St Petersburg last year. He bypassed the tournament.
Elseneer said he was told he could earn $114,000 if he lost his first-round match at Wimbledon two years ago against Italian Potito Starace.
Elseneer said he dismissed the offer out of hand and won the match in straight sets.
Norman said he had been offered almost $15,000 to provide information on player injuries but refused.
Tennis authorities continue to probe betting patterns stemming from a suspect match in Poland in July between Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and Argentina’s Martin Vassallo Arguello.
Wimbledon officials were shocked last year when betting exchange Betfair revealed $690,000 was wagered on unheralded Richard Bloomfield to beat higher-ranked Argentine Carlos Berlocq. Bloomfield, a British wildcard, won the match against an opponent ranked 170 places higher.
Elseneer said he was shocked. “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 my reply the next day, but I only needed a couple of minutes to realise it was impossible for me to contemplate.”
Representatives from the seven major tennis bodies — the four grand slam tournaments, the International Tennis Federation and the ATP and WTA Tours — last month met in New York to discuss the illegal gambling scourge.
The group is pooling its resources in an attempt to end a problem said to be linked to the Russian mafia.
ATP chairman and president Etienne de Villiers said: “I am not surprised players are approached in sport today but what I care about is their reaction, where they stand in terms of their responsibility to the sport and what the consequences are.
“We can fine a player up to $US100,000 ($114,000) for transgressing our code and impose a maximum lifetime ban if it continues.”
