SOURCE: Daily Telegraph

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Betfair, who retain a large fraud and security department, conducted an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the match. However, even though they then felt satisfied to go ahead with all the payments, Andrew Walker, the vice president of the WTA Tour, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that they were "investigating this situation", but emphasized that, "at this time", there was no indication of any wrongdoing on the part of the players or their entourages.

Since 2005, Betfair have had a memorandum of understanding with the WTA Tour, which means that the bookmakers alert the governing body about any suspicions they might have. Mark Davies, Betfair's director of communications, said he believed that it was the first time that they had looked at a women's match so closely.

"We need to be certain that the markets are clean," Davies said. "We delayed settlement. We then settled as normal. We wanted to check that we were happy, and in the end we were."

In August, Betfair refused to pay out on more than £3 million of bets which had been put on the outcome of Nikolay Davydenko's match against a little-known Argentine player at a tournament in Poland.

Davydenko, the world No 4 from Russia, retired from the match in the third set after citing an injury, and he is presently being investigated by the ATP.

"We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to gambling-related activity," added Walker, "and we have been in close contact with Betfair and are investigating this situation."

"To be clear, at this time there is no indication of any wrongdoing by anyone."

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