‘They disturb the game’: how betting fans are taking over tennis courts

Jeering and heckling are increasingly commonplace, even at grand slams, as spectators try to influence matches

M idway through the first week of the US Open a couple of years ago, Jiri Lehecka’s attempts to find his form were disrupted by incessant taunting from a spectator close by. “There was a guy who sat just behind my bench on a smaller court, court four, and he was talking to me basically for the first three sets, like non-stop,” Lehecka says. “He was talking to me like: ‘You can’t do it. You are tired. He’s better than you are.’”

Lehecka maintained his composure and closed out the match, but even as he focused on navigating the intense stress of competition, he believed he understood this spectator’s motivations. The spectator, he thinks, was not there just to cheer for his favourite player: he was a bettor who had put money on Lehecka to lose. He had entered court four solely to influence the outcome of the match.

“In that moment, I took it as a motivation, but just out of curiosity, I spoke to the chair umpire and I was like: ‘Do you think this is normal? Can you do something with that?’” says Lehecka. “The reaction was not very powerful. It was: ‘Yeah, I can’t do anything as long as he’s not insulting you.’ It was some person who knew exactly where the line was. So it wasn’t a nice experience. I won that match, but I think that as soon as you start going against the other player instead of cheering for the player you had a bet on, this is wrong.”

The presence of disruptive gamblers in the stands at tournaments has been a growing trend in tennis, an additional annoyance that players must navigate. “I think that we can see this, basically, I don’t want to say in every tournament, but in many tournaments, especially in Europe,” says Lehecka.

While players report seeing bettors at tournaments around the world, from the grand slams to the lower level World Tennis Tour, where the presence of these individuals are even more conspicuous in the absence of large crowds, certain events have gained notoriety for their presence. At the Italian Open, it has become commonplace to see spectators trying to get into players’ heads. The US Open is another tournament where players have repeatedly reported disruptive gamblers.

Lorenzo Musetti, the Italian world No 14, agrees: “It happened a lot of times, not just in Italy, but in every part of the world. Unfortunately, there’s still this problem that we see sometimes, especially in some matches which is pretty clear that there’s some people from the crowd that they bet and are cheering for the ones that maybe it’s not the home favourite or they disturb the game.”

Last year, the Swiss player Leandro Riedi angrily confronted someone he believed actually had money on him to win before reporting him to the chair umpire. Naturally, this is a greater problem for lower-ranked players assigned to smaller courts in closer proximity to spectators than the top players on the big stages.

Betting is an unavoidable theme in modern tennis that affects all levels of the sport with negative consequences everywhere. After every loss, and even wins, professional players can be subject to abuse, threats and hate speech on social media from gamblers. Betting is also at the heart of corruption within the sport, with many players over the years being banned for throwing matches.

But this year’s US Open has thrust the subject further into the spotlight. On the eve of the tournament, the organisation announced a partnership with Kalshi, the sports betting and prediction company that allows users a wide variety of predictions. Almost as soon as the partnership had been announced, the US Open sent push notifications from its app for articles sponsored by Kalshi offering match predictions. While players continue to receive the negative consequences of betting, the US Open profits from the same beast.

For now, there is nothing in the rule books of the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals, the Women’s Tennis Association or the grand slams aimed at weeding out disruptive bettors and umpires can only step in if a spectator becomes abusive. Players are split on whether they should accept this situation. Some, like Musetti, argue there is more the sport’s authorities can do. “The only thing that we can do is try to avoid these people … the [tennis governing bodies] have to do something and have some security because we cannot do much on the court,” he says.

However, some also feel they should accept that bettors in the stands have become a part of the sport. Jakub Mensik says players simply have to accept these situations. “Sometimes it’s so obvious you can see it,” he says. “It happens to me plenty of times but I know that I cannot do anything because [bettors], those kinds of people, sometimes they don’t know what to do with their lives. They’re just trying to enjoy it and wishing all the other players the worst so it’s part of the game. It’s basically already part of us, part of all of the athletes, and we just unfortunately have to manage it. There is no other way.”

Tommy Paul, the American world No 21, similarly believes this is a regular part of professional sport. “I think it’s part of sports,” he says. “You never react to anything. It’s annoying, for sure. Everyone hears it. It’s not like what you want to be hearing at the back of the court, but it’s kind of what we signed up for.”

Other players are defiant. During a recent match, Coco Gauff wondered whether an incredibly loud fan was a bettor but she is adamant that no unruly gambler can get into her head: “If they want to come, they can try and see if they can rattle me, but it won’t work.”

On the subject of whether he has dealt with this issue in any of his matches, Frances Tiafoe responds with a devilish laugh. “I haven’t gotten that,” he says, smiling. “Yeah. You don’t want me to have that. It would definitely hit headlines. Let me not even get into it. If that happened, it would be fun.”