Spectator at Dubai Open warned over suspected illegal betting

A spectator suspected of involvement in illegal betting was threatened with ejection during world number one Justine Henin's shock defeat at the Dubai Open.
 
Henin's 7-6, 7-6 loss to Francesca Schiavone was her first in 18 matches and five years at Dubai and her first to the Italian, and during it a man in the stands was watched at length talking on a mobile phone.
 
He was then spoken to by a WTA Tour official as he sat in his seat, before the two left to continue the discussion elsewhere. It was said to be the second such incident in the centre court stadium two days.
 
"I spoke to a man who seemed to be giving a commentary on the match over his mobile," said John Dolan, senior communications manager of the WTA Tour.
 
The man apparently claimed not to understand what was being said in English, according to Dolan, who then communicated with him in German.
 
"He claimed that he was giving a commentary to his son, but the way he was moving his body suggested he did not want to speak to me so I asked him why that was," Dolan continued.
 
"In the end I said to him that he would be ejected from the arena if he uses his mobile here again; laptops are already banned from the stadium.
 
"With commentary it's possible to be ahead of the score being called by the umpire, and to be ahead of satellite images by two or three seconds.
 
"And it's possible to make money from betting in just that amount of time.
 
"We have to be careful not to go too far with this, and so I'm trying to find out from the police here what is within our rights are here."
 
Last month the four Grand Slams, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), ATP and the WTA Tour announced an independent analysis of professional tennis integrity regulations and procedures and the nature of the current threat posed by gambling.
 
Led by Jeffrey Rees and Ben Gunn, leading sports integrity experts, the analysis is the latest stage in a Joint Tennis Integrity Programme's work to eliminate corruption in professional tennis.