The article that I have found here speaks of a ATP linesman that had been banned from his officiating duty due to wagering on tennis matches was not prevented from working at the 2015 US Open! Apparently Denis Pitner, who was banned for 12 months beginning on August 24, 2015, had already picked up his credentials for the upcoming US Open beginning on August 31, 2015. He remained involved in officiating the tournament all the way until September 10th, 2015 on which were Men's quarterfinals matches and women's semifinal matches. While I understand that it may have slipped through the cracks that he was allowed on the grounds with his already picked up credentials, I cannot believe that there was not a system in place that prevented the tournament organizers from assigning him matches to officiate. Seems like there should have been red flags all over this. The article also says that the same official was not prevented from officiating another ATP event in Doha in January 2016. Clearly the ATP needs to readdress how they are credentialing their officials and prevent this from happening in the future. I am interested to see what you all have to say about occurrences like this, whether or not you think it ends up having a significant impact and possibly discuss how the ATP may or may not be fostering an environment that is too susceptible to those that may be fixing matches. As you can see, not only are match fixers attacking the sport from the players side, but likely also able to impact matches by way of the officials.-Jacob Koretz
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-3444967/US-Open-organisers-admit-banned-umpire-worked-2015-tournament-linesman.html
This is very interesting. In my own opinion, If a ref in any sport has been caught wagering matches in his own sport, they should have a ban for life. He should definitely not be allowed to ever take part in one of the four majors again, but this does show the weakness of the ATP in how they punish officials.
ReplyDeleteGarrett Closs
I do not see how this official continued officiating games after what he was caught doing. Currently the news is just getting out about a lot of potential fixed games so the ATP could be getting into a lot of trouble or scrutiny for allowing this to go on regardless if they knew about it or not. After reading this article the ATP seems like they just gave this official a slap on the wrist which sends a message to everyone else that they are not taking it seriously. -Connor Butler
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting, and quite controversial. This guy has either learned his lesson or will now have to be extra careful to cover his tracks. In my opinion it's kind of a slap in the face to the players who work so hard to get to these games, and then an official just comes along and has the ability to call the shots. Interesting to see if they will do anything to change the rules. - Daniel Dzhurayev
ReplyDeleteI also am confused how he seemed to just fall in the cracks of this system that seems has a lot of wrong doing occurring within it. It's unfair to the players and also the fans how people like this guy were allowed to officiate games after already screwing up previous games. It says a lot about ATP and I think they really need to work on their organization and get it organized to prevent occurrence like this from happening again.
ReplyDeleteObviously the system for making sure banned umpires are not permitted to continue their duties during their suspension can be greatly improved. They can also inflict harsher punishments on these umpires that could include lifetime bans. That being said, these are more responsive security measures to matches that have already been fixed. Can anybody think of more preventative measures to ensure that matches aren't fixed in the first place, as far as hired umpires are concerned?
ReplyDeleteThis post interests me a lot because I cannot believe that a Grand Slam event would allow this to happen. I also find it interesting that tennis officials are getting involved with match fixing because none of the calls that officals make in tennis are subjective. The ball is either in or it is out. Additionally, in major tournaments, there is technology in place that players can challenge an officials call and have the call confirmed or reversed. I would have never thought that this would be a problem in tennis.
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