Andy Murray on Tanking in Tennis: 'Everyone Knows That It Goes On'

This goes back to the days of appearance guarantees when guys would get 1st prize (or close to it) money just for showing up.

The organizers would consider it an advance on the prize money the player would win in the tourney but there was nothing to stop players from losing in the 1st round and going home with the cash.

Feinstein covered this in Hard Courts, published back in '91.

Tanking matches at the behest of gamblers is, I would argue, worse than that but on the established continuum of dishonesty of the sport's culture.

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Maybe one reason this isn't being talked about too much is that, certainly in Britain, Murray's opinion isn't taken too seriously.

He enjoys being in the papers enough to write an occasional column for the tabloid "The Sun" and his mother writes for "The Telegraph" so maybe he's just feeding the media stories she can follow up.

The autiobiography he's writing has already been delayed a year due to the lack of tennis matches he's been able to play so this could just be another attempt to fill that with controversial material.

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Hoopinion and Deborah, I find it hard to believe too, but the suspicion already aroused by the Davydenko match and now this one make it hard to ignore as well. I suspect, like most things in this country if tennis were comprised of majority black or MINORITY players instead of white ones, we would hear allegedly "objective" NOT commentators screaming about it 24-7. Just like you could hear CRICKETS chirping after Mark McGwire described his performance-enhancers WHILE he was playing, yet Barry Bonds was all but strung up while HE tried to play the INSTANT his evening the playing field led him to SURPASS McGwire's and others' records. Shaking my head. The rabidly racist double-standard in this country fairly REEKS!
Verily

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Verily - I can't comment on racism in America but the difference in what Murray said is that he accused players of throwing matches. The betting issue has previously been assumed to include the possibility of trainers, coaches, agents etc. etc. passing on information about injuries.

Murray took the debate to a different level by implying that players were directly involved in cheating.

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Verily, I read your comment and cannot understand why you brought up the race issue. I agree that there is a problem with racism in America, but I do not see what that has to do with the article about corruption in Tennis. As for the Barry Bonds issue, I think most of the people that don't like him would say that it's not because he's black. It's because of his arrogance and the way he has treated the fans and the press throughout his career. And though this has nothing to do with this article, I heard a soundbyte on ESPN a couple of days ago, of Terrell Owens saying, "they are covering me man-to-man, that's just disrespectful." How arrogant is that? How do you respect someone who thinks like that, much less says it out loud for his teammates and the rest of the world to hear. My point is some guys bring it on themselves.

Chris

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Folks, please disregard anything Verify has to say. He/she can take a tal about flowers growing in someone's backyard and turn it into something racist. Once again, the ignorance of Verify has come to the forefront. This article has absolutely nothing to do with race, bigotry, or anything of the sort. It has to do with match-fixing, tanking, whatever you call it. Whether the person doing the fixing is white, black, red, or indigo, the point is, match-fixing needs to be addressed, and stopped. Save the racist comments for when something of that nature comes up. Poor, poor Verify.

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Tanking, of course, I stopped watching tennis after the William sisters "played" each other for a Wimbeldon trophy. Come on, no one wants to touch "them", but pretty obvious. Go back and watch the matches. Whomever won the first was "given" the second.

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the amount of money these players recieve while on the circuit is phemonenal and managed correctly should last a lifetime along with endorsment money and the such.If this is true about tanking I believe the players themselves should be the one's to come foward if they are approached with such an offer,they would become an instant hero

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hello? we have people who were unaware of players tanking in tournaments? who are you people and when did you land on planet earth?

i suppose you same people would argue with me when i say that any time there is a large amount of money involved, there is graft of one sort or another. not just in any sport, but in business, politics and so on.

lastly, yes, it's becoming more and more apparent that bigotry has not been stomped out as many of us had hoped. it still dwells in the hearts of many, from and against different races, and is hurtful; especially for those peoples who have suffered to a great extent over it in the past.

bigotry is a thread that runs through everything. it is not geographical, economical, or otherwise. it is hard to find except by a slip of the tongue. how can anyone put tennis ahead of any of the other ... tennis? arthur ashe and the williams sisters have helped alot in this area, but tennis players surely are not more often racist.

why would bigotry even be mentioned here? where's waldo? media and its evils ... well, that's another topic altogether.

the smash

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To me, tennis is one of the mot exciting sports to watch. This is an individual sport and the players depends upon no one but themselves. Re: "the huge amount of money these players receive" for match play depends upon each successful tournament win/loss. Compare their winnings to, say ONE standout baseball player or ONE standout basketball player or ONE standout football player. A tennis star like a Sampras or a Federer plays a career for the money some athletes in other sports make in a single year!

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Hoopinion - get your black chip off your shoulder.

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Racism abounds in all walks of American life, including sports. How is it possible for a White person to commit homicide and recieve less jail time than Micheal Vick will get for killing a dog? As for Barry Bonds, his life is his own, but the white public has convicted him based on media's lynching of his character. From the sidelines, I think Bond's knew that the media's betrayal was pre-ordained. How much money will be spent to incarcerate O.J.? If Black woman would have been killed would White American still be pursuing this vendetta against O.J.? Have you ever noticed that Whites are entertainers/muscians and Blacks are rappers? White athletes are intelligent while Blacks ae physically gifted. Look at promotion rates in the military or Black professors getting tenure; what about the manufacturing downsizing, who is being affected more? Look at the images of Blacks shown in the media -- women are overweight or promiscuous and the men are drug dealers. What scares me is that it's working. Well the elections are coming. I wonder which candidate will bribe the Black populous will hollow welfare and education programs.

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