In tennis at the Challenger level, when something is fishy, tennis fans tend to hope for the best, but expect the worse. And retiring two points from the finish of the match is certainly fishy.
Enter Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Samarkand is home to the $54,160 Samarkand Challenger, one of four Challengers this week . With seeded players as low as World No. 309, and a Top 8 seed clocking in World No. 273, this is a relatively unheralded player field in a relatively unknown area of the world.
Goncalo Oliveira is the definition of a journeyman. Well-known in the tennis world for playing just about every week he can, Oliveira is still a relatively unknown player, with a career high ranking of World No. 194 in late 2017, and a current live ranking of No. 254. The Portuguese player has never made the main draw of a Major, with his best result being the final qualifying round of the French Open last year.
But, Friday, at least on Twitter, Oliveira was in the spotlight. As tennis blogger Paul Timmons pointed out, Oliveira retired in his match against Corentin Moutet today, down 30-0, when he was losing the match 6-2 5-2. This means that he would only need to stick out for two more points in order to give Moutet a proper win.
https://twitter.com/PaulT_Tennis/status/1129360892645318656
However, the right hip injury of Oliveira surely had to be debilitating, as Oliveira retired from his match, giving Moutet the win by retirement. Which, maybe you could buy, if it weren’t for the fact that Oliveira and doubles partner Andrei Vasilevski beat Jose Hernandez-Fernandez and Pavel Kotov 6-3 6-4, a match in which Oliveira and Vasilevski were never broken.
https://twitter.com/PaulT_Tennis/status/1129412131676459008
Therefore, it is quite clear that something doesn’t add up here. For Oliveira to retire with potentially only two points left in his match against Moutet would normally indicate that something is seriously wrong, and that a doubles match just hours later would be totally out of the question. But, Oliveira was able to not only play in his doubles match, but win it! Huh.
It would appear that, for whatever reason, that Oliveira did not want to lose this match in completed sets. What makes this especially fishy is how some bookmakers offer voids for matches that aren’t finished. Therefore, it is not out of the realm of possibility that Oliveira bet on himself in one of these sportsbooks and then, when he got very close to losing, pulled out to void his bet instead of losing. And while it would be a little ridiculous at this point to be certain of that conclusion, when something like this happens on the Challenger Tour, tennis fans can’t help but worry about the integrity of the sport. While it might have been a legitimate injury, it is certainly suspicious.
More late retirements
But, the title of this article mentions that late retirements are a “trend” not an “instance.” This is where Teymuraz Gabashvili comes into play, in a very similar scenario. Gabashvili is a much more accomplished player than Oliveira, having made the second week of the French Open on multiple occasions, and having made at least the second round in every Major, with a career high of World No. 43 in April of 2015.
But, Gabashvili is having a tough season. He is currently No. 382 in the ATP live rankings, having not won consecutive matches at the Challenger level since May of last year (and with that being his only time in 2018 having two wins in a row at a Challenger).
Interestingly, enough, earlier in May, Gabashvili retired against Dimitiry Voronin at the Shymkent Challenger, down 5-7 6-4 2-5 (*0-30). Gabashvili was also two points away from losing, but instead of playing out the match, decided to pull out.
Again, must have been a pretty serious injury to retire from the match, with the conclusion of the match potentially only a single minute away. But, a couple of days later, Gabashvili was winning a doubles match alongside partner Grigoriy Lomakin, with the time of the match over 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Although it was a couple days later, for Gabashvili to pull out of the match against Voronin only, potentially, two points away from the conclusion almost surely must have indicated an injury that couldn’t be healed in two days time. And certainly Gabashvili wouldn’t be able to hold up physically in a match that approached two hours, not after having such a serious injury.book
This is not the only time Gabashvili has retired so close to the conclusion of a match. In a 2018 Challenger in Istanbul, he retired down 4-6 1-4 against Evgeny Donskoy. And against Mirza Basic in a Challenger in Quimper last year, he retired down 6-4 1-6 2-5. I know 4-6 1-4 is not one game away from a loss, or even two points away, but given what’s been going on with his retirements, it is a little suspicious.
In light of what happened with Oliveira today, and with Gabasvhili in the past, it wouldn’t hurt the TIU to at least look into matches such as these, and at least make sure that there was nothing fishy going on. I’m not accusing either of these players on betting on themselves, but at the very least, further investigation is needed.
Given what has previously happened on the Challenger Tour, fans can’t help but be suspicious, and the TIU should be trying to air on the side of caution. After all, we have documented many, many, many, many, many suspicious cases on this very site.
(Oliveira’s late retirements in question: https://livestream.com/ATP/events/8684140; https://livestream.com/ATP/events/8684142)
The main Gabashvili late retirement in question: https://livestream.com/ATP/events/8668848)
Main Photo from Getty
