Sport is made for betting

Last week against Crivoi in Bastad, he turned up injured and put in little effort. Now the same thing is happening again in Indianapolis, against an even weaker player in Kevin Kim. Kim backed from 2.34 down as low as 1.10. I dare say bookies won't be covering his first-round matches for much longer... Crivoi vs Brands also looked very fishy today. The market went sharply against Crivoi in the hour before play started (1.74 to 2.24), then after winning the first set and going a break up in the second, he was still only marginal favourite (1.9). But, he had traded as low as 1.3, which suggests injury was involved. There were a couple of long breaks between activity on the scoreboard which suggests treatment from the physio - but, as commented by a colleague, that would be part of the script anyway if the match was arranged. Brands wins 4-6 6-4 6-1, not a surprising result on the cold form, but the betting movements were much different. The ATP could have something serious on their h...

Crivoi vs Istomin in Bastad, Sweden! Victor Crivoi, a journeyman from Romania was backed from 1.81 into 1.06 on Betfair before the match, and the 2-0 sets betting from 2.74 to as low as 1.09. Denis Istomin had retired at Wimbledon with a back injury and it appears as if he wasn't fit to be resuming on the tour. You can't blame the bloke for trying when points and prizemoney is at stake, but obviously people knew he wasn't ready to play. Every cynic is gonig to jump on this and scream fix. Personally I'd rather give the benefit of the doubt to the player, making every attempt to play despite not being fit. We've all seen footballers in various codes take the field when they shouldn't have. Men are stubborn beasts, and we will try to play through pain, especially when money, and in this case, ranking points (he'd get neither and probably a fine if he pulled out and was replaced by a lucky loser) are at stake. His ranking of 68 means he gets into some ATP event...