Mr. Chip & Charge

• The Davydenko Controversy

  2007-11-07 12:53:43
  

  There has been a lot of talk about what happened in the third round match between Nikolay Davydenko and Marcos Baghdatis. Davydenko was committing a lot of double faults, and during the change over chair umpire Cedric Mourier made some outrageous comments. Among other things, he told Davydenko: "Just try and serve like me, put the ball in the box." (Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eaFT5TR-hw)
  
  Sure, Davydenko has a very bad reputation for throwing away matches. Anyone who has followed the betting market during some of his losses is very likely to believe that several matches have been thrown away for financial gain. The well known Sopot incident against Martin Vassallo Arguello was far from the first time Davydenko has been involved in a match with odd betting patterns. However, he has not officially been found guilty and therefore needs to be treated like all the other players by the ATP.
  
  It is very obvious that they are keeping an extra eye on him at the moment, having given him a warning for lack of effort in St. Petersburg and the comments by Mourier in Paris. Could it be that some of the employees within the ATP already know that he is guilty and will be thrown out of the tour? That might be the case, but if so, the ATP needs to officially declare the decision before treating him like a criminal. The matches against Cilic in St. Petersburg and Baghdatis in Paris were not offered on the betting exchange Betfair, and this greatly decreases the opportunity to make huge financial profit from fixing a match. I would be extremely surprised if any of these two matches were fixed.
  
  Anyone who watched Guillermo Coria during last year's clay court season knows that it is possible for a good player to suddenly not even be able to put the serve inside the box. Why has it happened to Davydenko? Well, nobody really knows, but a guess is that he is feeling an immense pressure at the moment, being under investigation and possibly knowing that his career is about to end.
  
  A lot of the young chair umpires coming up love to be at the center of attention. That is fine, as long as they remain professional. Cedric Mourier clearly crossed the line in that conversation with Davydenko and needs to be suspended. More likely, though, is that he will receive a pat on the back by his colleagues at The Association of Tennis Professionals.

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