Leandro Riedi has emerged as one of the breakout stars of the US Open, coming through qualifying to reach the second week. But the Swiss star had an unusual encounter with a spectator during his second-round match, whom he believed was a bettor, and decided to inform the umpire.<\/p>\n
The world No. 435 caused a massive upset when he took out 19th seed Francisco Cerundolo in a five-set comeback victory. But during the fourth set, he thought something was off when someone in the stands started passionately cheering him on.<\/p>\n
Riedi conceded his break lead to Cerundolo when he sent a forehand long, and then headed to his bench. According to Bounces<\/a>, one spectator started shouting: \u201cOne at a time, Leandro!\u201d<\/p>\n But the qualifier told them to \u201cshut up\u201d and then told the umpire that he thought the man in question was a bettor. He\u2019d noticed the same person in the stands for his first-round match against Pedro Martinez.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just betting for me. And now, if I lose, he will text me. He\u2019s one of these guys. Get him off. I don\u2019t want to see this guy,\u201d Riedi told chair umpire Scotty Moore.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I lose, he\u2019s texting me: \u2018You\u2019re so bad, I hope your mother dies\u2019.\u201d According to the USTA, the man left the stands of his own accord.<\/p>\n Riedi went on to win 3-6 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-2, and he\u2019s since made it to the last 16. Reflecting on the incident, he told BBC Sport<\/a>: \u201cIn that moment he was saying the wrong words to me.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was trying to be positive but for me it was like, \u2018Be quiet, you have nothing to do with me\u2019, you’re just betting on me. He was not a Swiss guy and he was always on his phone. So for me… he’s probably a bettor. In that moment I just didn’t want to see or hear this guy.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe I’m wrong, but I feel I’m correct because I’ve experienced it enough – that he was betting. If he really is a supporter and he didn’t bet then I’m truly sorry, but I have a gut feeling he was a bettor.\u201d<\/p>\n The Swiss tennis player has also called on tennis bodies to \u201cstop\u201d signing sponsorships with betting companies.<\/p>\n The International Tennis Federation has a deal with Stake, while the FanDuel Group is the WTA<\/a>\u2019s official gaming partner, and Betway sponsors tournaments like the ATP-WTA 1000s in Miami and Madrid.<\/p>\n Riedi added: \u201cPersonally I think it should stop. Because the [bettors] feel like if [companies] are sponsoring tennis events then it is fine to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Bettors in tennis have come to the forefront in recent months, as players are increasingly speaking out about the abuse they receive on social media after a loss, most of which they believe comes from people who have lost money betting on them.<\/p>\n Katie Boulter<\/a> is among those who have received death threats online<\/a>, while world No. 4 Jessica Pegula<\/a> said the level of abuse had unfortunately become \u201cnormalised\u201d for tennis players<\/a>, and added: \u201cI get told my family should get cancer and die from people here on a regular basis. Absolutely crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n To be the first to receive the latest tennis news, join our WhatsApp community<\/a> or newsletter<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leandro Riedi has emerged as one of the breakout stars of the US Open, coming through qualifying to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[135209,79,1068,5838,16,15,5067],"class_list":{"0":"post-390356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-leandro-riedi","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-tennis-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-us-open"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115131451015310936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}