(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-12 09:55

SHANGHAI - Under-fire tennis star Nikokay Davydenko on Saturday laughed off the match-fixing probe against him after his brother and wife were asked "funny" questions by investigators.

Russian tennis player Nikolay Davydenko greets Chinese fans before the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Masters Cup. Davydenko laughed off the match-fixing probe against him after his brother and wife were asked "funny" questions by investigators. [Agencies]

The world No 4 insisted he was not worried about the inquiry despite his brother and his wife, Irina, being quizzed this week.

"It's funny. I wasn't at this meeting, I was waiting in a hotel but my brother, lawyer and my wife were there," said the Russian.

"I asked my wife what happened and she said it was just funny. They were interesting questions so we were just laughing."

Davydenko is under investigation by the ATP over suspicious betting patterns relating to a match he played in Poland in August.

Gambling website Betfair refused to pay out after unusually large sums were wagered on 74th-ranked Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello, who lost the first set but was handed the match when Davydenko retired injured.

The ATP has reportedly stepped up its probe after Davydenko refused to hand over phone records. Investigators mainly wanted to question his wife and brother about recent injuries which have affected his performances, he said.

"There's a street in Moscow where rich people live. They asked my wife how many kilometers do you live from this street," said Davydenko, who lives in Volgograd, about 900 kilometers south of Moscow.

"She said, '3,000 kilometers.' It was funny. Some of the questions were interesting for these guys. For us they were funny."

Woes have multiplied for the 26-year-old who was also fined for not trying at St. Petersburg and warned by the chair umpire for repeatedly double-faulting against Marcos Baghdatis in Paris. He later blamed an elbow injury.

Several players have since revealed illegal betting approaches, suggesting a widespread problem in the sport.

On Saturday, Italy's Alessio di Mauro was banned for nine months and fined $60,000 for betting on matches, the first player penalized under the ATP's Anti-Corruption Program.

Davydenko also said he was being unfairly linked to other incidents, such as Tommy Haas's allegations that he was poisoned during a Davis Cup tie in Russia.

"Some stupid things are coming out about tennis and my name is always first on the list," he grumbled.

However, ahead of the year-ending Masters Cup, Davydenko said he was glad the season was almost over and predicted the controversies would soon die down.

"It was more difficult in the beginning. Every day the press asked questions," he said.

"Now I don't care. I feel much better. The press are just writing, but what can you do?"

Federer backs crackdown

World No 1 Roger Federer backed tough measures to stop players betting on tennis matches as a corruption crackdown began on Saturday.

Federer said officials should come down "very hard" on gambling as the ATP announced a nine-month ban and fine for di Mauro for betting on matches over several months until June.

"I've never been approached, I've never been on a (gambling) website and I'm happy to stay that way," Federer said.

"You can bet on other stuff, there's a lot of other things you can do. But if you bet on tennis as a tennis guy, that's not right.

"People should be fined or banned for a while, how long is up to other people to decide but we should be very hard on these people."

The 26-year-old Swiss insisted the top players were clean despite an ATP investigation into Davydenko's defeat in Poland.

"At the very top of the game we don't have any problems at all," he said. "It's more with the lower-ranked players who have the temptation.

"With the Davydenko issue, we don't know what's going on there yet but once that's cleared we definitely don't have any of the top guys involved."