(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-11 09:36

MELBOURNE - The squeaky-clean world of tennis approaches its first Grand Slam of the season next week with an image problem that it is working to put right.

While 2007 will be best remembered for the exploits on the court, it will also go down as a year when the sport was left reeling from claims of match-fixing and doping.

So serious were the allegations that Australian Open organizers have introduced anti-corruption measures designed to prevent illegal gambling and match-fixing - the first time any major tennis event has taken such steps.

A hotline has been set up to report alleged corruption, and a ban implemented on unauthorized use of laptop computers courtside. Enhanced security measures will also be in place to restrict access to players.

"We don't believe our sport has a corruption problem but we do recognize that a threat to the integrity of tennis exists," said Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood.

Offenders face strict sanctions, ranging from fines to life bans. They could also be jailed.

It follows reports of suspicious betting activity last year, as well as players claiming they had been approached to throw matches.

At the heart of the most persistent allegations was Russian world No 4 Nikolay Davydenko.

Davydenko, 26, will play in Melbourne despite being the subject of an ATP Tour probe after suspicious betting patterns relating to a match he played in Poland last August.

He and his wife and brother have all been questioned after huge sums were wagered on Argentine journeyman Martin Vassallo Arguello, who lost the first set but won the match when Davydenko retired injured.

It wasn't Davydenko's only run-in with tennis authorities. He successfully appealed a $2,000 penalty for "lack of effort" after an error-strewn defeat to Croatian qualifier Marin Cilic at the St. Petersburg Open.

Last month, Italian players Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali were banned and fined for betting on matches.

Starace, the world No 31, was suspended for six weeks and fined $30,000 while Bracciali, ranked nO 258, was banned for three months and fined $20,000.

The ATP, the governing body of the men's game, said that an investigation found that Starace had bet on matches from February 2006 to May 2006. Bracciali was guilty of betting from May 2004 to January 2005.

It followed fellow Italian Alessio Di Mauro, the world No 130, being banned for nine months in November for similar activities.

In an interview with British newspaper, the Daily Mail, last month, Larry Scott, chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour, said attempts by criminal gambling syndicates to fix women's tennis matches had also been uncovered.