‘They disturb the game’: how betting fans are taking over tennis courts

Jeering and heckling are increasingly commonplace, even at grand slams, as spectators try to influence matches Midway through the first week of the US Open a couple of years ago, Jiri Lehecka’s attempts to find his form were disrupted by incessant taunting from a spectator close by. “There was a guy who sat just behind my bench on a smaller court, court 4, and he was talking to me basically for the first three sets, like nonstop,” Lehecka says. “He was talking to me like: ‘You can’t do it. You…