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IMG Gambling: Will Tennis Be Able to Recover?

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IMG Gambling: Will Tennis Be Able to Recover?
This month, the IMG (International Management Group) was challenged in court by a man named Jim Agate, owner of a printing company called Agate Printing. Jim Agate has filed a lawsuit in LA County Superior Court, citing Ted Forstmann, the CEO of IMG, as
a gambler, and listing World Number 2 professional tennis player Roger Federer as the accomplice in a betting scandal. Agate cites himself as the go-between for gamblers and the subjects of their bets.
Agate claims that Roger Federer provided Forstmann with inside information about the 2007 French Open final, and Forstmann, who was originally betting $10,000 dollars on the Swiss player’s victory, upped his bet four times to $40,000. Agate also claims to
be in possession of phone records which prove that Forstmann did indeed call first Federer, and then Agate himself on the eve of this match.
The foremost concern of every player, fan and critic was the question of Roger Federer’s innocence and character. Federer, due to his exceptional standing and the class with which he has always carried himself, may be able to come out of this ordeal without
a blemish on his career record. The tennis phenomena says, “If it were a different player, I would hope that it's obviously not true. But because it involves my name somewhere out there, I know it's 100 percent not true. Pretty relaxed about this because I'm
for complete honesty for the sport. Leave the game better off then when I arrived to the sport, even though it was already a great platform I had. The last thing I would do is harm the sport ... I would never do such a thing.”
The problem lies here: the IMG is not just a group which manages some of the world’s best players, such as Federer, World Number 1 Rafael Nadal, and WTA Top Ten players Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams. Technically, IMG currently owns tennis. It is well
on the way to dictating the entire sport.
To illustrate this, let’s consider the Tennis Channel. The website of this channel has a list of investors; IMG is one of the biggest names on that list. Several top-level tennis tournaments are owned and stamped by IMG. The group’s website boasts the fact
that it sells rights and sponsorships to two of the Grand Slams, Wimbledon and the Australian Open. The famous Nick Bollettieri Academy, training home to outstanding tennis stars including American Andre Agassi, is now known as the IMG Bollettieri Academy.
What if these claims are true, and Ted Forstmann is in fact a compulsive gambler who has been betting on his players, as well as using them for his personal gain?
While Federer may be able to recover, the more pressing question is also strangely the one that has been completely ignored over the past few weeks: will the sport ever make it back to its revered status at the end of this fiasco? The lawsuit filed puts
both tennis and the IMG in an extremely precarious position where credibility is concerned.  It may well be too soon to determine whether or not the aggrieved party is in fact sane and reasonable, or simply a vengeful lunatic, but one thing is for certain;
if the accusations made turn out to be true, it will herald the fall of pro tennis in the Open Era.

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