Mafia behind Davydenko bet?

2007-08-28 09:09

New York - Montreal, Cincinnati, New Haven and now New York.

It's been nearly a month since the ATP said it was investigating suspicious betting patterns on a match involving Nikolay Davydenko at a tournament in Sopot, Poland, and he can't hear the end of it.

After beating American teenager Jesse Levine 6-4 6-0 6-1 in a relative quick one hour and 40 minutes on Monday to advance to the second round of the US Open, the fourth-ranked Russian faced another barrage of questions about the issue.

"It's like mentally, you're tired," said Davydenko, who didn't get asked one question in English about his victory over Levine.

Reading on the internet, he says, is draining, especially the stories with "bad things. You're already nervous."

Davydenko retired from the August 2 match against 87th-ranked Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina with a left foot injury after winning the first set 6-2, but losing the second 3-6 and trailing 1-2 in the second.

British online bookmaker Betfair said it received about $7m in wagers on the match - 10 times the usual amount - and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set.

Davydenko has yet to be interviewed by tour officials investigating the matter, saying he's played every week since the announcement of the investigation. He next will go to the China Open in Beijing after the US Open, then has the Davis Cup semi-finals between Russia and Germany. Then he's expecting to sit down and answer questions.

He said it's exasperating to hear insinuations of being bribed to fix a match, especially when he's lost in the first round more than once.

"Because if you see, I losing many tournaments in first round, in small tournament," he said. "Like I lose after Wimbledon three weeks in a row first round."

Davydenko reached the quarter-finals in the Masters Series event in Montreal the week after Sopot, and the semi-finals the week after that in the Masters Series event in Cincinnati. He had a bye in the first round of New Haven, and reached the third round before being beaten by Gilles Simon last week.

So far the crowds haven't bothered Davydenko, at least not yet at Flushing Meadows. That, he said smiling, can be a benefit of speaking limited English.

At least Davydenko has been able to keep a good sense of humour about it, deflecting a question about rumours involving the "Russian mafia."

"First, I don't live in Moscow. I don't know really guys from mafia in Russia, because I live from 15 years old in Germany," he said. "That was pretty tough to say about Russian mafia. You know, like, maybe if you go now to Brooklyn, you find Russian mafia here in New York, but I never saw no guys also in New York from Russia."

- AP