With organised crime syndicates believed to be behind the betting scams that have repeatedly tarnished the reputation of tennis, the ATP have employed the services of a convicted member of the American mafia to warn their leading players of the inherent dangers of allowing themselves to be lured into a web of corruption.

In the light of investigations into unusual betting patterns surrounding last week’s defeat of world No 3 Nikolay Davydenko by the 87th-ranked Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello in the Orange Prokom Open in Sopot, Poland, the ruling body of men’s professional tennis has intensified its desire to banish the potential for players to be coerced into throwing matches.

Earlier this year the ATP invited Michael Franzese, a self-confessed high-ranking mafia member of the New York Colombo crime family, to lecture more than 200 of their leading competitors, who were called to a mandatory players meeting before the Miami Masters Series event which dealt with organised crime’s involvement in sports gambling.

Franzese, referred to by the American media and members of US law enforcement alike as the New York Mob’s “Long Island Don” and “The Prince of the Mafia”, was reputedly once one of the biggest money earners the mafia had seen since Al Capone. Facing repeated racketeering charges, he elected to plead guilty to yet another indictment, accept a 10-year prison sentence and then lecture on the adverse effects which his former career could have on sport.

A series of betting cases, linked to irregular betting patterns on online exchanges, were a predicament for the International Tennis Federation. When the ATP took over responsibility for the problem in 2003, they set up an anticorruption programme and immediately established a memorandum of understanding with Betfair, the world’s biggest internet betting exchange, which is based in west London.

More recently, the ATP chairman and chief executive Etienne de Villiers opted to approach Franzese, who had previously addressed such leading sporting bodies in the United States as Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. The audience in Miami was transfixed by the admissions of the former mafioso, and further input is planned.

An ATP spokesman said last night: “As well as the clear, stringent rules and sanctions connected with the anticorruption programme, we also communicate regularly with the players to help ensure they understand the rules and their responsibilities in this area. The presentation in Miami was one part of that ongoing education process.”

Despite being a clearly superior player in terms of world rankings, Davydenko’s odds drifted significantly before the match in Poland and even when the Russian took the first set 6-2, betting patterns at Betfair still showed that a larger amount of money than may be expected was being placed on the underdog to win, Davydenko citing a persistent foot injury for his subsequent retirement as Vassallo won 2-6 6-3 2-1.

Apart of the memorandum of understanding, an independent investigator has already been appointed by the ATP and Betfair to look into this latest case involving Davydenko, who is revered as one of the most diligent players on the ATP tour but was known to be suffering from the foot injury that caused him to default from the game against Vassallo Arguello.

Unsurprisingly, Davydenko distanced himself from any wrong doing when he was questioned about his withdrawal. “During the match I was starting to get problems with the whole of my foot and it was very painful,” said the 26-year-old Russian. “Normally I never retire because I like to fight.”

Vassallo Arguello, who was beaten 2-6 6-4 6-2 in the following round by Spain’s Albert Montanes, added: “I don’t think that he [Davydenko] has anything to do with this. I was playing against him but he was playing also with an injury, and that is all that I know about it and that’s also what I felt in the match. I felt nothing else.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s new minister of sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, insisted that sports stars who are found to have been colluding in betting scams will face jail sentences of up to two years in a government crackdown which is designed to protect the integrity of sport and eradicate match-fixing and illegal betting.

Sutcliffe maintained that the government would take a “zero-tolerance” approach to cheats, while sports governing bodies warned that betting-related scams could become a bigger threat to sport than drug doping.

“Even though incidents of cheating are rare, they are still deeply concerning and damage the integrity of sport,” said Sutcliffe. “That’s why we have taken this issue so seriously.

“When the Gambling Act comes into force on September 1, it will mark the start of a new zero-tolerance approach to betting cheats. It will introduce a new two-year jail sentence and give the Gambling Commission powers over betting fines for the first time, including the ability to suspend and void bets and a new requirement on bookmakers to share information with sporting administrators.”