Your Call: 9.12

Hi, everyone! I'm kind of jammin' here, in order to get this post up before an 11 am conference call with Sam Querrey (post to follow), but I wanted to pass on the complete text of the ATP's press release re. the Sopot gambling investigation. Use this post to discuss the tennis being played today, or on the upcoming weekend. Feel free to go OT as well.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, U.S.A. – A fundamental role of the ATP is to ensure that men’s professional tennis continues to be free of corruption.  For this reason, the ATP instigated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the match in Sopot between Mr. Vassallo Arguello and Mr. Davydenko on 2nd August 2007.  ATP can confirm today that it has concluded its investigation and found no evidence of a violation of its rules by either Mr. Arguello or Mr. Davydenko or anyone else associated with the match.

During its investigation, the ATP worked with a number of leading external integrity experts. As well as interviewing a number of individuals involved in the match and reviewing betting account details of those who wagered on the match, the investigating team also requested and reviewed records from the players and from individuals closely associated with them.

These included telephone records from individuals including Mr Vassallo Arguello and Mr Davydenko as well as members of both players’ support personnel. Certain individuals declined the ATP requests and appealed them to the independent Hearing Officer.

After lengthy legal proceedings, the independent Hearing Officer directed those individuals to turn over the requested records to ATP.  A number of records were received and examined, however due to the length of the legal proceedings some of the records were confirmed as having been destroyed by the relevant telephone providers in line with local data protection laws.

This confirmation means that the ATP has now exhausted all avenues of enquiry open to it and the investigation is now concluded.

The in-depth investigation of the circumstances surrounding the Sopot match, together with the findings of the recent, independent tennis integrity review by Jeff Rees and Ben Gunn, will play a large and important role in informing and advancing the imminent creation of the tennis wide Integrity Unit and its accompanying regulatory framework which will now have responsibility for running the new global Tennis Anti-Corruption Program on behalf of the ATP, WTA, ITF and Grand Slam Committee tournaments.

I think Kolya is going to have a very good weekend, and so is Ptenisnet. I hope the rest of you do as well! Check back for the Querrey post later.