More Trouble in Tennis

Well, couple of articles in the last week indicating the match-fixing at low levels in professional tennis is (too) alive and well...

• Spain:  15 arrested and nearly 70 more looked at with respect to match-fixing, leading from an Armenian-based gang.  (Deadspin)
• Another report indicates the number of arrests is, in fact, 83 -- with over 20 professional tennis players involved and at least one who played in the US Open implied involved.  (David Payne Purdum, through Brian Tuohy)

It's the same as the professional video-game match-throwing problem.  If you are low enough on the totem pole in tennis, you aren't making enough money playing the sport to play it fairly.

Especially because you have to jet around the world, qualifier to qualifier, hoping to win your way into a main draw with a lucky draw to win a match or two...

The fact is that a lot of these players are getting offered more money to dive in a match than they could feasibly hope to win in the match.

At some point, they're just going to have to flush this entire model at the lower levels and start over.