Cologne - He was part of the glamorous tennis world took 15 years long a jet-set life with the greatest aces of the sport.
By 2005, Frank Messerer (supervised 35) as "equipment Coach" world stars such as Roger Federer, Thomas Muster, Marc Rosset and Co. on the ATP Tour.
He looked behind the scenes of the supposedly clean, white sport - and discovered jet-black spots. Now the Gummersbacher packt.
The onset of avalanche of revelations about betting scandal in tennis was no surprise for him, but only a matter of time.
"Wetten, there were definitely games that have been verzockt" said knife makers in the EXPRESS conversation, "But far worse are the games like the Spaniards, who have been moved to come into the world rankings to the top."
The insider tells of a very lousy way of match-fixing - and putting pressure on the Spanish tennis difficult. Above all, coaching legend Pato Alvarez and the head of today's Spanish Davis Cup team, the former Weltranglistensiebte Emilio Sanchez (42)!
"The Spaniards have cleverly done that. They need time to look at the statistics of the Spaniards themselves. They've always pushed each other's points. If there was a young player who has wanted to top that Pato Alvarez Emilio Sanchez to make you lose against, "says Messerer.
And cites an example: "Take the Arturo Viloca. Did not come up for years, then he has joined Pato Alvarez - and stood up again in the top 50 in the world. Alvarez was the coach Emilio Sanchez and Sergio Casal, Javier Sanchez.
The Viloca was a young, average player has to rumgehampelt Challenger tournaments. And then he has taken Pato Alvarez - and wins at once against Emilio Sanchez, Javier Sanchez. In Barcelona, he has the same views rausgehauen Emilio in the first round. This has given ranking points. And thus he came at once ranked 100 in the world. "
The culmination of these shenanigans had happened in the mid 90s. Reminder: This time it was the old ranking system. Were judged the best results over the past 52 weeks. In addition, bonus points for victories came against players rated higher category. And the higher the ranking, the bigger the next tournament - and the appearance money.
At that time Thomas was with Messerer pattern on the tour, accompanied the Austrians in his French Open victory 1995th "At the time Alvarez was the top players. They have completely dealt out among themselves, each other in the top 100 retrieved. "
Strong stuff. After all: The top stars on the tour were clean - and had not participated in such shenanigans. Messerer: "People like Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Roger are not necessary."
