ATP fines Davydenko for lack of effort after Cilic defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.Andy Murray came from behind to beat Dmitry Tursunov at the St Petersburg Open last night but one of the previous day's losers was still the talk of the tournament. Nikolay Davydenko, who is already at the centre of a betting investigation, was fined $2,000 (£975) for not trying hard enough to beat Croatia's Marin Cilic.
The Association of Tennis Professionals acted after the umpire warned Davydenko, the world No 4 and top seed, for lack of effort against the world No 102. After winning the first set easily, Davydenko was broken late in the second and swept aside in the third as Cilic won 1-6, 7-5, 6-1. Davydenko served 10 double-faults in the last two sets.
The Russian, who is being investigated by the ATP after irregular betting patterns during a match against Argentina's Martin Vassallo Arguello in Poland in August, said: "I double-faulted to lose a game in the third set and he [the umpire] gave me a warning, saying I was trying to lose on purpose.
"This is just outrageous. How does he know what I was trying to do? I was so upset with the whole thing I started crying."
The ATP has agreements with 14 betting companies under which information is exchanged about suspicious betting patterns or gambling on tennis by players and their associates, which is banned. The ATP declined to say whether it had been in communication with any of the companies about the Davydenko-Cilic match.
Spokesmen for Coral, the bookmakers, and Sporting Index, the online betting company, said that there had been no suspicious wagers before the match. Betfair, which voided all bets on the Davydenko-Arguello match, has not allowed betting on their subsequent matches while the ATP's investigation continues. An ATP spokesman said yesterday that the inquiry was making " good progress".
Murray beat Tursunov 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 and meets another Russian, Mikhail Youzhny, in today's semi-finals, the winner to play Cilic or Fernando Verdasco. The British No 1, who still has an outside chance of reaching the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup, was not at his best but gave a resilient display.
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