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- Small wager cost player a chance to take part in this year’s French Open
- Match fixing reported to be epidemic in the world of tennis
- Evidence was gathered on some 28 players, nearly all of which was ignored
- “My dream had collapsed on the eve of the draw.,” Lestienne laments
The Herald Sun out of Melbourne, Australia, reports Monday on how Constant Lestienne managed to owe $46,660 after winning a $4.50 wager.
The number 206 in the world was told he was out of this year’s French Open field after the Tennis Integrity Unit started an investigation into his bet on Stan Wawrinka.
That $46,660 was in the form of costs associated with fighting the charges.
The tennis world has undergone massive upheaval over the past year following reports of rampant match fixing.
In January, those placed in charge of looking into suspicious betting patterns on professional tennis matches claimed the strong evidence they discovered was widely ignore.
Some 28 players with ties to the suspected match fixing were not looked into further by the Association of Tennis Professionals. Instead it opted to focus on a group of about 10 competitors.
The 23-year-old Lestienne said he was stunned to find “my dream had collapsed on the eve of the draw.”
“Like many of my generation, I have an online account which I use for Parisian sports,” he said in a statement published by the French press.
“I had 2.90 euros in winnings that I wagered on the final of Roland Garros,” he said.
- Alistair Prescott, Gambling911.com
