AUSTRALIAN Open finalist Arnaud Clement is the latest player to reveal he had been approached to throw a tennis match.

The Frenchman joined a growing band of high-profile peers, including Serbia's world No. 3 Novak Djokovic, who claimed to have been offered money to deliberately lose.

"It happened to me, but I will not tell you where or how. I didn't hesitate for a second, I said no," Clement said.

"I can't imagine that a top-10 player could accept that (a bribe), but it's hard to imagine as well that guys (gamblers) go to tournaments to make such offers."

Clement's revelation follows similar admissions from Gilles Elseneer, Marcos Daniel, Flavio Saretta and Arvind Parmar.

Undercover police will monitor the Paris Masters in a crackdown on illicit gambling, while officials said yesterday betting patterns on all matches would be monitored.

"We must be very vigilant and very severe. I hope this will be treated with the same severity as doping," French Tennis Federation president Christian Bimes said.

Australian Open officials have warned that players, coaches and other accredited personnel found guilty of illegal gambling will be banned for life from Melbourne Park.

Online betting operator Betfair yesterday cleared a match in St Petersburg last week between Russian Dmitry Tursunov and Serb Boris Pashanski of any suspicion.

But officials are still investigating the now-infamous clash in Sopot, Poland, between Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello.

The second-round match between Tursunov and Pashanski drew the attention of authorities because of unusual betting patterns.

Tursunov trailed 6-4 2-0 before advancing 4-6 6-3 6-4.

Betfair became alarmed when Tursunov continued to receive heavy support, despite wallowing in the second set.

Tursunov was eventually knocked out in the third round by Brit winner Andy Murray.

"We investigate, as a matter of course, those markets that we have potential issues with," Betfair spokesman Adrian Murdock said yesterday.

Murdock said the investigation revealed that a specific punter known to the company continued to back Tursunov.

Betfair eventually settled all bets, in part because the unnamed bettor reportedly loses more than he wins.

"He's such a high-volume bettor that it skewed the market a bit," Murdock said.

Tennis has been dogged by match-fixing rumours since Davydenko's retirement-induced defeat in August.

Police will investigate anything suspicious on court at the Paris Masters.

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