Luke Davies
Fans branded a tennis player as the ‘worst in the world’ after watching his unbelievably poor performance at an event in Doha, Qatar.
Ukraine’s Artem Bahmet faced Thailand’s Kritten Koaykul, who was world number 1367 at the time, at a Futures tournament in 2019, and it’s fair to say the performance was not one you’d expect to see from a professional.
The event was run by the ITF World Tennis Tour with a winning prize of £2,000 from a share of an overall £11,000 pot.
Players could sign up to play in the qualifying round of the event for just £27, but the Ukrainian may have been wishing he’d spent his money on something else when the action got going.
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Bahmet was trying to qualify for the event during his clash against Koaykul, but things did not go as planned.
Incredibly, Bahmet failed to win a single point as his opponent completed a clean 48-consecutive point sweep - or what is known as a “golden” match - winning 6-0, 6-0.
A golden match has never happened at a Grand Slam, although Yaroslava Shvedova completed a golden set at Wimbledon back in 2012 during her third-round match against Sara Errani.
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The Ukrainian struggled to hit the ball several times and appeared as if he’d never played tennis at a competitive level before.
Fans who saw the video of the game could not help but offer their thoughts online.
One said: “Looks like I still have a chance to start my tennis career right about now!”
Another added: “Was that a professional tennis match?”
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While a third claimed: "Kudos to the guy who won, he didn't want to embarrass the other guy. Nice of him to play a few balls back each point - it's no fun for him, he wants to get ready for the rest of the tournament and is just wasting time being on that court. As for the guy who lost, it depends on why here's there. If it's honest and he just fancied a go at it, then fair play to him... should have been caught by officials, though. If it's for betting purposes, obviously that's not acceptable. Can say that he played a professional tennis match though!"
Interest was initially humorous, however, The Telegraph later reported that there may have been a darker element to the match.
The outlet claimed that an online Russian betting forum featured screenshots of bets placed by Bahmet’s pals on Bet365, which would’ve “raised €2,203.54 from an investment of around half that amount”.
One of the posters wrote: “Bets on this match paid for a trip of two people to Doha and a week in an excellent hotel, and also earned good money from above. And this is only part of the potential profit from the trip. All week, Mont and Artem will be at the tournament, give forecasts directly from the courts, and next week they will again play in qualifications and bet against themselves.”
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It is unclear if action was taken against Bahmet, but according to ITF records, his match against Koaykul was his sole tennis contest on record.