SOURCE: Associated Press

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With soccer and horse racing, tennis is among the most popular sports when it comes to betting and gamblers can put wagers on such small detail as how many points will be won by one player in a specific game.

When Vilotte monitored the ATP Masters Series tournament in Paris, which the FFT also organizes, he said bets over the weeklong tournament totaled between €500 million (US$750 million)and €1 billion (US$1.5 billion).

"You can imagine that for Roland Garros, the totals would be much higher," he said.

Dupont said the federation's case is built on two basic tenants: that the betting companies are tainting the reputation of the French Open and unfairly using the tournament as a way of making money.

If a match-fixing scandal would break at the French Open, it would undermine the value of the tournament, which had a 2007 turnover of €118 million (US$175 million) and attracted 450,000 fans to Roland Garros and a potential 3 billion viewers worldwide, Dupont said.

The federation says the betting companies manage to avoid being stuck with the fallout when there is suspicion of match fixing.

"They purely scrap the bets on the event in question and by doing that generate a scandal that the organization and players have to deal with. It can give them a lifelong ugly reputation," Dupont said.

The ATP opened an investigation into the Davydenko match, interviewing him and his wife and reviewing telephone records. No findings have been announced.

Late last year, three Italian pros — Potito Starace, Daniele Bracciali and Alessio Di Mauro — were suspended for betting on tennis matches involving other players.

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