Gilles Elseneer has revealed that he was offered a bribe during the 2005 meet

Wimbledon’s good name was dragged back into the controversy over match-fixing and corruption in tennis on Wednesday when Gilles Elseneer, a Belgian, revealed that he had been offered around £70,000 to throw his first-round match against Potito Starace, of Italy, at the 2005 Championships. He immediately refused.

Last year Richard Bloomfield, then British No. 5 and ranked No. 259 in the world, had a first-round victory over Carlos Berlocq of Argentina — ranked 170 places higher on the ATP computer. It later came to light that an extraordinary £300,000 had been placed on the Betfair exchange for the Argentine to lose, which he did in straight sets. No one has got to the bottom of that affair.

Now comes Elseneer’s disclosure that, soon after he qualified for the singles event two years ago, he was approached “bluntly into my face” and told that he could make a hundred times more than his first-round winner’s cheque for giving up the match. “Think about it and give us an answer tomorrow,” he was told.

“I had my honour as a player to protect and Wimbledon meant everything to me,” Elseneer said on Thursday.

“They said I should take my time and give them my reply the next day, but I only needed a couple of minutes to realise it was impossible for me to contemplate.” He won in straight sets.

Another Belgian, Dick Norman, a 10-year tour veteran, has also confessed to being approached and offered about £9,000 at Wimbledon, although he cannot recall the year, to turn informant on the state of the health, mind and the physical fitness of his fellow players. He also declined.

The revelations from Elseneer and Norman will hasten attempts by those running tennis to strike at one of the most cancerous elements in sport. At the US Open this month, officials of the ATP, Sony Ericsson Women’s Tennis Association Tour, International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam tournament chairmen debated pooling their resources and working towards delivering a comprehensive, common anti-corruption unit.

The extraordinary rise of online gambling and increasing number of people given backstage access to tournaments big and small — a variety of agents, managers, coaches, physios, therapists, psychologists, friends, families, hangers-on — requires an ever-growing demand for vigilance.

Etienne de Villiers, chairman and president of the ATP, whose management team is on a working retreat in Britain, said: “I am not surprised that players are being approached in sport today but what I care about is their reaction, where they stand in terms of their responsibility to the sport and what the consequences are.

“We have never stopped pursuing every avenue to preserve the integrity of our sport. We have very rigorous programmes. We have Draconian penalties.

“We can fine a player up to $100,000 (about £50,000) for transgressing our code and impose a maximum lifetime ban if it continues. If we find anyone, be it a player, someone in their entourage, anyone, the maximum ban will be imposed. There is zero tolerance.”

Both the ATP and WTA have a memorandum of understanding with 11 online betting companies, most notably Betfair, to maintain a flow of information and log irregular movements in the market.

The ATP has also sought help from the British Horseracing Association and hired two former Scotland Yard detectives with experience in the gambling underworld to help them swiftly to sift the information.