ANDREA SEABROOK, host:
2007 was a bad year for sports, at least ethically. Cheating football coaches, and doped-up baseball players and sprinters got more publicity than the games themselves. And through it all, maybe the sport brimming with the most controversy was tennis. Don't let those little white outfits fool you there -no angels. Three top Italian players were suspended by their country's federation for involvement in a betting scandal.
Nikolai Davydenko, a Russian who's one of the world's top-ranked players, stands accused of throwing a match. With the Australian Open about to begin the grand slam season tomorrow, it seemed a good time to find out what's going on with all of this gambling in tennis.
I spoke with Jon Wertheim. He writes for Sports Illustrated and SI.com, and I asked him to take us back to the alleged Davydenko match-throwing incident.
Mr. JON WERTHEIM (Writer, Sports Illustrated; SI.com): There was a match played (unintelligible) tournament between Nikolai Davydenko and an opponent who wasn't even, you know, on the top 50. Davydenko actually won the first set and after that, bets against him, went through the roof 10, 20 times more than normally would be bet, and then he ended up losing the match, with an injury - very, very suspicious. He wished - try to point out his vigorously proclaimed his innocence, but it sure - you know, something smells around.
SEABROOK: Davydenko is the number four tennis player in the world in men's, what would he stand to gain by throwing a match?
Mr. WERTHEIM: Well, that's a good question that a lot of people have asked. I mean, you know, money is the short answer. We also don't know. Perhaps he was under duress. And, you know, it's one of these things where tennis is so strange this way. Davydenko is one of these guys that play probably twice as much as other top players, and a lot of these results don't count under this Byzantine ranking system.
So in theory, he could play this match and lose it and it wouldn't count against his ranking. So part of the problem with all this, I think, is Internet wagering, but also tennis sort of almost begs for scandal like this, the way the rankings are set up.
SEABROOK: You know what makes this story interesting is that tennis isn't the kind of sport that you sort of associate with gambling or the mob or unsavory elements. But John McEnroe himself says there might be a mob influence in the sport.
Mr. WERTHEIM: You know who - I think that's a pretty cavalier speculation. But, you know, I think something else is going on. If you look at the nature of tennis, I mean, Roger Federer is the best player ever, will make dozens and dozens of mistakes every match. So it's very hard to discern what's - you know, who's throwing and who's simply making errors which are, you know, an organic part of tennis. So I think there are a lot of factors here that sort of make tennis unfortunately pretty ripe for this kind of scandal.
SEABROOK: Jon Wertheim, give us a quick preview of the Australian Open. The two singles champions last year were Roger Federer in men's, and Serena Williams in women's. But this year, Federer's been battling a stomach ailment and Serena has fallen to number seven in the world tennis rankings, when she used to be number one. What are their chances this year?
Mr. WERTHEIM: We'll, unless Federer's stomach ailment becomes stomach removal, I think he's still the overwhelming favorite. He's just essentially playing a different sport than the rest of the field. And Serena Williams had this tremendous comeback last year, winning the title but did very little the rest of the year. Meanwhile, Belgium's Justine Henin, who sort of like Federer - this artistic flashy European player. She comes in with 28 match win streak. I think she's probably the overwhelming favorite, although, you know, if it's Serena's fitness and body is up to it, it's always fun to see her at her best.
SEABROOK: I understand that the Ausies have rolled out a new kind of playing surface, not clay, not grass but plexi cushion.
Mr. WERTHEIM: Yeah. Their complaints with this new surface are that it might change the speed. Right now, all we know is it's a different color.
SEABROOK: It's blue, not green.
Mr. WERTHEIM: Yeah, exactly. We have a blue court. So it will be better on television so long it doesn't change the speed. So long that it stays where the aggressive players can aggress and the defensive players can counterpunch. I don't think there'll have much material impact on the tournament.
SEABROOK: The Australian Open begins tomorrow.
Jon Wertheim writes about tennis for Sports Illustrated and SI.com.
Thanks very much.
Mr. WERTHEIM: My pleasure.