Sports

Plenty to talk about at Camilla pro tennis tourney

• Among many topics to discuss in pro tennis, players at the 33rd annual Mitchell County Pro Tennis Invitational had a few opinions on the betting scandal.

Scott Chancey

CAMILLA — More than 20 tennis professionals, many of whom have been on one tour or another, converged on Camilla this weekend for the 33rd Annual Mitchell County Pro Tennis Invitational.

And they understand better than most that through the years, many tennis trends have come and gone.

Wooden rackets? Blue-jean denim shorts and Nick Bolletteri T-shirts?

They’re so yesterday.

Nowadays, however, there are still some rather intriguing issues in tennis.

Nikolay Davydenko recently won the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, but he is more known for being at the center of a tennis betting investigation that has rocked the sport.

Some of this weekend’s participants at the Mitchell County Tennis Complex reflected on the Davydenko issue, who has been investigated since August, though nothing conclusive has been discovered. According to reports, Davydenko emerged as an underdog at a London betting house before he played amuch lower-ranked player; and then became a bigger underdog after claiming the first set. Davydenko withdrew from the match while trailing, 2-1, in the third set, blaming a stress fracture in his foot. The betting house, suspicious, then voided the $7 million in wagers.

Davydenko reached this weekend’s Monte Carlo Masters semifinals before losing to world No. 2 Rafael Nadal.

“Am I surprised? Yeah,” said Armi Neely, who will be inducted into the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame later this year. “I mean, the only thing I can relate to at all is all the way back to when betting was allowed at Wimbledon at the All-England Club and it allowed off-track betting tents.”

Neely added that just because it was legal then, didn’t mean players could partake.

“Players weren’t allowed to do it,” he added, noting it happened during the early 1970s. “But other people could go into the tents and place a bet and go out and watch them play. The betting thing they had on the grounds one year, it wasn’t good. It was too tempting for the players and everyone else so they took it off the grounds after that.”

Tomas Catar, who was a 1995 French Open junior semifinalist and had an ATP-best singles ranking of 225, had an equally interesting observation.

“Yes and no,” said Catar, who retired from the ATP Tour in 2000 after six years, after being asked if he was surprised by the Davydenko investigation.

“I mean, I knew it was happening. I’ve seen it, not directly with the players but the coaches, trainers or friends of the players. It’s been there for a long time, (so it’s) nothing new. I saw coaches do it on the ATP Tour, they get the information from observing their players, you know what I mean?

“I have never seen players do it, though.”

Asked if anyone had approached him about throwing a match, Catar joked, “No ... I was never at that scale.”

OF NOTE

The annual Mitchell County Pro Tennis Invitational has raised more than $1,000,000 for charity over the years. For information on how make a donation, log on to www.camillatennis.com/make-a-donation.

FINAL SET

The “Camilla Hunters” face “Working on It” for the tournament team title at 1 p.m. today at the Mitchell County Tennis Complex. The consolation, at 9:30 a.m., is between “The Attackers” and “Miller All-Stars.”

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