Nikolay Davydenko exits at the first hurdle with a twist of Russian intrigue

The Russian fourth seed, who has a poor record at Wimbledon, lost 6-4, 4, 6-4 to Benjamin Becker as the German tore up the form book against a man who has never found life easy off the clay courts on which has built a formidable reputation.

Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko struggled to a straight sets defeat against Benjamin Becker

But after the upset, which did not attract suspicious betting activity, Davydenko hit out at the time being taken to build a case against him and explained why the match in Poland at the centre of the allegations attracted the attention of the authorities.

Internet punters placed wagers totalling £3.5million against him when he played Martin Vassallo Arguello last August in the Orange Prokom Open.

Davydenko comfortably won the first set before the money flowed in backing Arguello.

When the scores were tied at 1-1, Davydenko retired with a foot injury. Betfair reported irregular betting patterns to the ATP who launched inquiry. That has taken 10 months conclude and Davydenko is convinced the case against him will be unproven. 'My lawyer has told me it should be decided by July,' he said.

'He still needs to investigate the phone records of my brother and my wife. I've called the phone companies and they say they have no records from last August.

'I'd like to hand them over but I can't. I've given them all the information I can. So, no one can prove anything.

'I don't know why the ATP are waiting. Perhaps they wait to see if I do some mistake in other tournaments.

'I'm upset but what can I do? I can't sue the ATP because it's not their problem. I can't sue Betfair, no chance. I think that maybe it (betting activity) was because I'm Russian. Many Russians were watching.

'I spoke to my wife in Russian. It's may be possible I said something like didn't want to play or I could retire. People there can understand that.

'It may have been my mistake. I need to be quiet. I've tried to defend myself for a year. It's a bad dream, one that lasts not a day but months.'

Davydenko claimed the sport was clean of match-fixing but advocated one or two-year bans if anyone was found out.

He said: 'I don't think there is match-fixing but anyone caught should be disqualified. That's the biggest penalty the ATP can give. 'Why are the questions only about tennis? Are there no fixed matches in other sports? There's no reason for a top tennis player to be involved.'