Dimitar Kutrovsky and Dennis Novikov beat Wayne Odesnik and Michael Shabaz 6-4, 3-6, 10-4 in the quarterfinals of the Maui Challenger on Wednesday.
But the result was entirely irrelevant to the story.
Odesnik and Shabaz blatantly tanked, starting early in the second set and especially throughout the super-tiebreaker. An alleged hip injury to Shabaz may have been a contributing factor, but the chair umpire refused to shake hands with any of the four players after it ended. That alone is all one needs to know about the effort level–or lack thereof–from both teams.
Odesnik and Shabaz tank the tiebreaker:
Odesnik declines to shake hands with his opponents; umpire declines to shake hands with all four:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fso9BK_77VY]
wow…
Pretty poor stuff, especially from Odesnik, but the chair’s refusal to shake hands was probably due to illness. At least that’s what Mike Cation said on the broadcast today, after the chair again didn’t shake the players’ hands.
I dont believe that for one second
Is it not an offence to throw a match? They could be investigated for match fixing.
Isn’t this the same Odesnik who has a doping ban past?
yes
Really disappointing…and rare on the tour, thank goodness!
Odesnik is an anagram of “Snide? OK!”
Just sayin’, as they say in webland.
Is the true, for sure, no?
Out of curiosity, I decided to check this out. To say it’s shocking is an understatement. Is there anything in the rules that can be done or fines meted out for this shameful conduct? It’s an insult to the sport.
Oh and for what it’s worth, there is no way that it was due to illness or anything else that the chair refused to shake hands with the players. That was his way of letting them know that he knew they tanked the match.
Yes, players can be fined for ‘lack of effort’, which is not as bad as deliberately throwing a match (you can be banned for that).
Tho sometimes the 2 are directly related