Showing posts with label Australian Open. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian Open. Show all posts

Friday, June 10, 2016

The gambler and the top-50 tennis players

An Italian investigation is laying bare the efforts of a gambling syndicate that tried to fix tennis matches around the world, including at Wimbledon and the French Open. Documents seen by the BBC and Buzzfeed News suggest the gamblers approached two leading Italian players - but prosecutors say there is evidence they courted many others, including two who have been in the world's top 20.

Roberto di Martino sits back in his chair, his face creasing into a tight smile, pushing up his thin wire-rimmed glasses. I have just asked if I can look inside some of the dozens of manila folders of evidence about tennis match fixing piled around his vast office, beneath a fresco-covered ceiling. He shakes his head firmly, putting away the papers closest to me on his desk.

In May, he will present his evidence in court against two former Italian tennis players, Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali, who are accused of conspiring to fix matches with Italian gamblers.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace playing a doubles match in 2014
It has taken a long time to get the case this far.

The prosecutor from the northern Italian city of Cremona never set out to investigate tennis. In 2011, when police raided the home of Manlio Bruni, an accountant and gambler from Bologna, it was for involvement in a football corruption scam. He was placed under house arrest and his computers were seized.

But as investigators waded through the thousands of Skype instant messages on Bruni's computer they realised he was trying to corrupt tennis players. Working with Buzzfeed News and the Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, the BBC has obtained hundreds of pages of the evidence Di Martino chose not to reveal.

Media captionA former top-50 player exchanges Skype messages with a gambler offering him a match-fixing deal

In July 2007 Bruni began chatting on Skype to Daniele Bracciali, who had at one time been one of the world's top-50 players. They had been introduced by a mutual contact, who said Bracciali might be interested in fixing a match.

When Bruni decided to test him out, Bracciali was in the US, playing in the Newport tournament. He said it was "extremely important to win the first set, and if possible, to go a break ahead in the second… would that be possible?... in this case I can give you much more".

Bracciali refused, so Bruni tried again. "OK, I could do 50 to begin with for tomorrow but it is absolutely necessary that you win the first set." By 50 he meant 50,000 euros (£39,000). Bracciali said he didn't know his opponent so it would be difficult to arrange to win the first set, and he told Bruni: "90% of me says no... but if I change my mind I will let you know."

Bruni finished by promising 60,000 euros (£46,000) if Bracciali changed his mind. He said he couldn't do it, repeating that "it would be easier" if he knew his opponent.

This was the start of a relationship that would last for four years until Bruni's arrest in 2011. During this period, prosecutors say, the gambling syndicate Bruni was a member of would try to corrupt countless other players in Italy and abroad.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Daniele Bracciali
This wasn't the first time Bracciali had been tapped up by match-fixers. Years earlier, his family and friends had gathered in the bar of his tennis club, just outside the ancient walls of the Tuscan town of Arezzo. They were there to watch Bracciali play in the French Open, the local boy made good. Just hours before the match he called his father to say he had been offered $50,000 (£35,000) to throw the match. Also at the club was Paola Cesaroni, mother of another local tennis star, Federico Luzzi. She recalls how Bracciali's father was furious.

He told his son, "Don't do it, because tonight the whole town of Arezzo, all the supporters of your club are in front of a TV waiting for your match. So play, and win," Cesaroni says. This is exactly what Bracciali did.

Bracciali says he rebuffed Bruni's approaches too, and he denies any involvement in match-fixing. He told the police that he played along and faked interest - though one source close to the investigation says, "You might fake for a month but you don't do it for four years."

Bruni later told prosecutors: "I actually tried to corrupt him by offering him 50,000 euros if he won the first set and lost the other two during the game." Although Bracciali declined to fix this match, Bruni said that Bracciali "declared himself available to contact the Italian tennis players he knew, to get them to do what I asked, altering in whole or in part the result of the matches".

Bracciali first tried his sometime doubles partner, Potito Starace, who was then ranked number 31 in the world. According to prosecutors, Starace agreed to work with Bracciali and Bruni from the end of 2007. Prosecutors claim Bracciali communicated with the gamblers while Starace carried out the fixes on court.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Potito Starace
In December 2007 Bruni informed other gamblers in his syndicate: "We bought Potito." Starace was promised between 30,000 and 50,000 euros (£23,000 to £39,000) for each match he agreed to fix. Bruni told prosecutors he even provided Sim cards so the players could speak to him without being detected. Prosecutors claim this went on until 2011. Potito Starace strenuously denies any contact with gamblers or involvement in match-fixing.

In the computers seized by the police, the gamblers discussed about 30 matches, including at Wimbledon and the French Open. But there are two matches in particular, according to chief Cremona prosecutor Roberto di Martino, "for which we have very concrete indications that they have been manipulated".

Find out more
Listen to Simon Cox's report for File on 4 at 20:00 on Tuesday on BBC Radio 4, or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer

The first of these matches took place in May 2009. Manlio Bruni told police he had offered Starace 50,000 euros to lose against the lower-ranked German, Daniel Brands. The gamblers used several accounts to place bets that Starace would lose, but the betting company, Betfair, thought the betting looked suspect and refused to pay out their winnings when Starace lost. Bruni told the police the syndicate only made between 15,000 and 20,000 euros (£12,000 - £15,000) from the match but they decided to give this to Starace anyway and delivered it to him in cash at a tournament in Italy. There is no suggestion that Brands was aware that anything might be amiss.

Bruni checked with another gambler on Skype: "Did he like the cash?" The gambler replied he still hadn't seen it but added: "Braccio [Bracciali] told me that he was very happy."
Image copyright iStock
The second match took place in April 2011. Starace was taking on the Spaniard, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, in Barcelona and was offered 25,000 euros (£19,000) to lose, but double that if he won the first set and went on to lose the match. Starace withdrew and forfeited the match after winning the first set. He denies fixing this match or any other game.

A week before this match Starace had reached an ATP final in Casablanca. It was a big deal for him, a singles final. Bruni received a call about the game from a fellow gambler. He said Starace had taken 300,000 euros (£232,000) to lose. "I remained astonished," Bruni told the police. "Starace had always said that he would have been able to lose a first or second round but never a final."
After receiving the call Bruni checked with Bracciali who said the idea Starace would throw a final was nonsense. In the end Starace did lose. Bruni told prosecutors: "When I saw the result, the world fell apart."

Sources close to the investigation suspect that Starace was trying to work with a bigger, richer gambling syndicate. This part of the files was leaked to an Italian newspaper and Starace was furious when he read it. When he was interviewed by investigators in October 2014 he stated, "I emphatically deny any arrangement to lose a match in a tournament."

While the prosecutor was investigating Bruni's links with Bracciali and Starace, the Italian Tennis Federation used some of this evidence in 2015 to ban the two players for life for match-fixing.
Starace's ban was later overturned and Bracciali's reduced to a year because the appeal panel said the evidence wasn't strong enough. The Cremona prosecutor had already reached this conclusion and decided to base his case on different matches. The players face another possible hit, though, as the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) - the sport's own anti-corruption body - has also been running an investigation into the players since 2014. So far no action has been against them internationally.

But arguably the TIU should be using the Italian investigation to look into other players linked to gamblers, not just Bracciali and Starace.

As the Cremona prosecutor Roberto Di Martino ploughed through the thousands of documents, he realised this was not solely an Italian problem.
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Prosecutor of Cremona, Roberto di Martino, pictured in 2012
He noticed the names of top foreign players being discussed by the gamblers and scams they were proposing. As a tennis fan their names leaped out at him. Some of these players featured in an earlier BBC/Buzzfeed News investigation which revealed the world tennis authorities failed to act on repeated warnings about 16 top-level players taking part in suspicious matches.

In one conversation in February 2011 a discussion takes place about two players who have been in the world's top 20, who the gamblers call their "horses". One gambler says he has a conflict of interest as "one of my horses is in the final" and his "other one is in the semi-final". He goes on to claim he is friends with one of the players and "I have the pass as member of his staff", before adding ominously, "slowly my horses are coming to papa". A source close to the enquiry said referring to "horses" could refer to players who brought gamblers luck or alternatively that the players were under their control.

Roberto Di Martino refuses to name any of these non-Italian players, but says there is enough evidence in his files for investigators to question them, at the very least to find out if they were approached by gamblers.

He has limited ability to do this, so has handed all of his files to the TIU. But when they visited him three months ago they were only interested in the Italian players. He found this surprising and alarming.

"The international events seem more problematic than those situations in which, after all, only a few Italian players were involved," he says. This was not a case of "one single situation in which shadows were cast on important tennis players. The problem is that there are many situations, then it cannot be an accident, it cannot be a coincidence."

Nigel Willerton, director of integrity at the TIU said it "acts on all evidence of corruption". In January, following the BBC's revelations, an independent review panel was set up to look into match-fixing. Mr Willerton said: "This wide-ranging remit will allow it to investigate all and any allegations of corrupt practice."

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Does Anyone Really Know How to Produce Champions? Part II

coach mullins
Coach Mullins

As I mentioned in Part I of this blog, I strongly believe the coaches we need to be celebrating and rewarding are the ones that are finding ways to help children be passionate about our game. These are the coaches that are truly developing players and not just managing and smoothing out the edges of the already polished tennis player unblocked school. There appears to be some snobbery in our sport and the coaches coaching the “better” players seem to think they are somehow “better” coaches because they work with elite players. I know I have definitely been guilty of this at times earlier in my coaching career.
Some people claim coaching the top players is extremely challenging because they can be “difficult to work with” in a team setting or as individuals. I find this sentiment quite laughable. In my experience, the easiest players to coach are the top ones. Getting to work with extremely self-motivated, highly skillful, hardworking players is easy.

Yes, maybe they have some superior attitude and their rate of improvement is hard to measure. But the most difficult and rewarding thing about coaching is keeping people motivated when they are struggling, teaching new skills that appear complex and creating a culture of hard work, passion and love for the game. Personally, I am huge fan of the coach who nurtured a child’s passion for tennis, not the one who reaped the accolades for the almost-finished product.

I have been fortunate to coach at a number of different levels and I believe my skill set is best suited to the current demographic I am working with (NCAA Division I). I learned this very clearly when I started coaching my 6 year old son and his buddies. I realized I had very little idea of current best practices and how to ensure I was helping them with their technique while having a lot of fun! I gained a new appreciation of just how difficult it is to keep kids engaged and eager to come back for more.

When it comes to tennis, I can’t help but wonder if we are expecting our coaches to know too much in a lot of different areas and never really become experts in just a few. Tennis is such a vast game, with so many different shots, movement patterns, fitness considerations, injury prevention, mental and tactical situations to master. We don’t expect our teachers to be proficient at teaching every grade level.

During my playing career I was extremely lucky to be tutored by some outstanding coaches. I was fortunate to work with a technical coach who restructured my game when I was very young and held me to a high standard of technical ability. As I got older, I began to work with coaches who gave me a better understanding of the tactical aspects of the sport. It wasn’t until I got to college that I learned the physical nature of tennis and the type of toughness that was required to succeed at a higher level.
It appeared that over the course of my career the right coach came into my life at the right time to help me understand a new layer as to what the sport required. I don’t know that if I had stayed with the same coach all my life I would have been as well rounded a player. Some players stay with the same coach their whole life and have amazing careers.

Again, proving that there is no one path or magic pill for producing great tennis players. I know for myself that I did not make it on the professional tour because I did not have the required mental aptitude nor was I willing to sacrifice other areas of my life. I don’t blame anyone, have any regrets or think that if I had grown up playing on hard courts, or had more resources or a top 10 player from my home country to look up to or anything else that it would have been any different.

In conclusion, I believe we need to continue to improve education for not only coaches and players, but for parents too. We also need to understand that we live in global world and tennis is a very global sport. What is so bad about players leaving countries to go elsewhere to develop their passion? Is it truly the federation’s job to develop players? At the top level of tennis, it is more about individual names than the country they represent.

Players are playing for themselves 98% of the time and not for their country. Federations don’t have to be responsible for developing elite players past a certain point. Let the private sector take care of that and let players go wherever they want to go. The best always find a way; that is why they are the best. This is not an opinion I would have held when I was playing or even 5 years ago. But as I gain a better understanding of globalization and relate this back to the world of tennis, I can see more clearly now that our focus appears to be in the wrong place at times.

Let’s set a solid foundation for our players, provide adequate training facilities and a logical tournament schedule and ranking system. Most importantly, let’s get our best coaches working with our young players and figure out how to make tennis as relevant as possible throughout the world. Federations everywhere have consistently failed at developing players. No one truly knows what it takes, so let’s stop holding them accountable for such an unrealistic target. No one is responsible for creating champions other than the individuals themselves that want to achieve greatness.

Let’s reward those that get the most children passionate about tennis and turn the spotlight on these individuals on a much more consistent basis unblocked games online. We all have a responsibility to ensure the future of our game. Let’s stop pitting one development system against another. Let’s stop going into our silos and only associating with those coaches who are working with players of a similar level. Let’s stop telling kids to go “pro” when they should be going to college.

And let’s all put our knowledge and resources together to encourage future generations of tennis players. The more children we have playing tennis, the more we will have to celebrate.

Preseason Mistakes in Tennis

Preseason Mistakes in Tennis

Same story, different year. Players posting their spartan-gladiator marathon like workouts and efforts all over social media. And this already started weeks ago (Today is Dec. 2)!

I wrote a piece two years ago on the fact that more players are injured during the Australian part of the season (January) than any other. Now, that has zero to do with Australia, but more to do with the mistakes players make in their build up to it.

In 2014, no fewer than 28 players were forced to pull out as the consequence of injury leading up to the Australian open with pretty much the same number pulling out during the 1st slam of the year!

Pre Season mistakes
Now you would think that after a period of 4-8 weeks ‘rest- recovery-rebuild’ would have them fresh and ready to hit the hard courts running, right? Wrong!

Here’s why:

Tennis players, like all professional athletes are used to routine and habit. That means getting up in the morning and going to practice.

Having worked with around 100 professional tennis players over the last 15 years, I can tell you that two weeks of doing ‘nothing’ is as tortuous as it can get for them. Part of the reason why these players are so good is because they love it, so getting them to rest and stay away from the practice court is like pulling teeth.

I always say that my biggest challenge is not getting players to work, it’s getting them to respect rest and recovery better.

So what are the main reasons so many players are exhausted or injured even before they set foot on the plane down under?

It comes down to these 6 things:

1. Starting off season training program too soon. Players have not recovered from previous season. Old injuries haven’t been given proper time to heal.

2. Mentally not ready. Mental fatigue is just as big as physical fatigue.

3. The big one: Going big in the off season. And here I partly blame over zealous and enthusiastic trainers and coaches.

4. Players get injured doing things they’re not used to. Off season calls for diversity, so all of a sudden we have players doing cross fit, boxing, loads of running, etc.. Things their bodies are not used to or conditioned for.

5. The extended time on hard courts (2 months) can lead to many joint issues, stress fractures etc.. And how often do we see knee, adductor, hip and lower back issues prop up in Australia?

6. Understanding the athletes total energy system. The added loads of physical and sport specific (on court) time. Energy and muscular systems get overloaded, which can either lead to respiratory issues or injury.

Oh, and let me not even go into all the off season leagues and exhibitions either!

The off season is all about effective planning. Experience teaches you that. I’ve certainly made some mistakes over the years. It comes down keeping the reigns on the horse, not flogging it. We want the horse ready to perform for the big race.

One thing I aim for is to have the player 80% ready by the time they leave for Australia, then use the 15-20 days before the Australian open to sharpen that last 20%.

Unfortunately, some players have already peaked in the pre- season!

Looking forward to the Australian summer!

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