Better come with a note

NEW YORK – Already dealing with a gambling investigation, the men’s tennis tour is confronting another issue facing the sport by instituting fines and suspensions for players who fail to show up at top tournaments without a good excuse.

“We’re going to be fair here. Players have expressed concerns about this. This is not the best news they’ve ever had,” ATP chairman Etienne de Villiers said Friday at the U.S. Open. “No turkeys vote for Thanksgiving.”

De Villiers also addressed the specter of gambling, which arose in early August when an online betting company suspended more than $7 million in wagers on a match involving No. 4-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.

Tour rules in place since 2003 bar players or members of their entourages from betting on tennis or providing inside information to others, with penalties of $100,000 fines and lifetime bans.

Now the tour’s board will consider a new rule that would punish anyone who fails to report any information about someone else’s possible gambling activity.

Players who drop out of tournaments altogether have become a concern for fans and promoters.

So starting in 2009, if an independent medical panel decides someone was not too injured to compete at one of eight mandatory tournaments, a top-20 player would lose part of his share from the tour’s $7.5 million bonus pool.

In addition, such an “unexcused absence” would draw a suspension from the mandatory tournament where that player had the most success the previous year.