PEOPLE CARE ABOUT TENNIS? YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS?!

by Brian P. Foley, The College Baseball Blog

John McEnroe recently came out and said that the sport of tennis is in trouble because the Mafia is influencing the play on the court. The NBA had the Tim Donaghy scandal this summer and now McEnroe is saying that the Russian Mafia is messing with tennis? What else are they going to take away from me? Golf?

This recent development comes to light after Italian player Alessio di Mauro was found guilty of betting on matches. Number 4 ranked Nikolay Davydenko is currently facing an investigation by the ATP after a loss in Poland and Philip Kohlschreiber had to defend himself against charges of march fixing in the German press.

McEnroe believes that the lower ranked players outside of the Top 100 are more prone to throw matches as they are only making around $100,000 a year. My question is, why would a highly ranked player like Davydenko try to throw matches without some form of harm being threatened against him or his family? Davydenko would be risking too much by throwing matches because he is already making a very good living. Plus, if he were to be found guilty he would likely be banned for life from the sport and effectively end his career.

Unfortunately, the reality is that we will always have gambling issues in sports because people have financial problems off the court/field which can be handled very quickly by throwing a game (or even fixing a game if you are an official like Donaghy).

(Editor's Note: Our fellow Carnies at HHR also ranted on this topic if you're interested.)

Source: Daily Telegraph