Midway through the first week of the US Open a couple of years ago, Jiri Lehecka’s attempts to find his form were disrupted by incessant taunting from a spectator close by. He’s better than you are.’” Lehecka maintained his composure and closed out the match, but even as he focused on navigating the intense stress of competition, he believed he understood this spectator’s motivations. The spectator, he thinks, was not there just to cheer for his favourite player: he was a bettor who had put money on Lehecka to lose.
He had entered court four solely to influence the outcome of the match. Can you do something with that?’” says Lehecka. It was: ‘Yeah, I can’t do anything as long as he’s not insulting you.’ It was some person who knew exactly where the line was.
So it wasn’t a nice experience. I won that match, but I think that as soon as you start going against the other player instead of cheering for the player you had a bet on, this is wrong.” The presence of disruptive gamblers in the stands at tournaments has been a growing trend in tennis, an additional annoyance that players must navigate. While players report seeing bettors at tournaments around the world, from the grand slams to the lower level World Tennis Tour, where the presence of these individuals are even more conspicuous in the absence of large crowds, certain events have gained notoriety for their presence.
At the Italian Open, it has become commonplace to see spectators trying to get into players’ heads. The US Open is another tournament where players have repeatedly reported disruptive gamblers. Lorenzo Musetti, the Italian world No 14, agrees: “It happened a lot of times, not just in Italy, but in every part of the world.
Unfortunately, there’s still this problem that we see sometimes, especially in some matches which is pretty clear that there’s some people from the crowd that they bet and are cheering for the ones that maybe it’s not the home favourite or they disturb the game.” Last year, the Swiss player Leandro Riedi angrily confronted someone he believed actually had money on him to win before reporting him to the chair umpire. Naturally, this is a greater problem for lower-ranked players assigned to smaller courts in closer proximity to spectators than the top players on the big stages. Betting is an unavoidable theme in modern tennis that affects all levels of the sport with negative consequences everywhere.
After every loss, and even wins, professional players can be subject to abuse, threats and hate speech on social media from gamblers. Betting is also at the heart of corruption within the sport, with many players over the years being banned for throwing matches. But this year’s US Open has thrust the subject further into the spotlight.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
