Tennis Australia will hire a security consultant to investigate potential illegal gambling on matches and player conduct at next year’s Australian Open. “These measures are designed to ensure that we address the issue of player/tennis integrity generally and illegal gambling specifically,” Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood said in a statement Wednesday.

Andy Murray slightly hurt his back in a car crash while heading to his hotel. The 12th-ranked Murray, who is playing at the Paris Masters, was with coach Brad Gilbert on Monday in heavy traffic when another car went into the back of their car. Murray said his back pain was nothing serious. “It happened last night from the airport to the hotel.

An online betting exchange investigated another professional tennis match for suspicious betting patterns, but found nothing wrong. Betfair, the same company that voided bets on a match in August for the same reason, looked into Dmitry Tursunov’s win over Boris Pashanski at last week’s St. Petersburg Open.

Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf may not be the best mixed doubles team around, but they still think they’re the best married one. The two retired tennis starts lost 7-5, 6-2 to current world No. 1 Justine Henin and the retired Goran Ivanisevic during Graf’s charity fundraiser on Saturday. Agassi had to give up the spotlight to his wife, still a huge hero in Germany as they played near her hometown in…

Lawyers for retired tennis star Andre Agassi sought a preliminary injunction from a federal judge Tuesday, alleging that Target Corp. stores continued selling sandals bearing his name without his permission. Agassi Enterprises Inc. first sent a letter to the discount retailer in late July, demanding it stop the practice, according to a lawsuit filed Sept.

Third-seeded David Ferrer was upset by Agustin Calleri 6-4, 7-6 (3) Tuesday in the first round of the Swiss Indoors. Ferrer was knocked out in the opening round for the second straight week, despite a career-high No. 6 ranking. Stefan Koubek upset seventh-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-4, and Jarkko Nieminen rallied past Robby Ginepri 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Andy Roddick became the fifth player to qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup despite withdrawing from this week’s Madrid Masters because of a knee injury. The eight-player Masters Cup takes place in Shanghai, China, from Nov. 11-18. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Nikolay Davydenko have qualified.

Justine Henin eased into the quarterfinals of the Zurich Open with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Vera Zvonareva on Thursday. Seventh-seeded Daniela Hantuchova was upset by Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-3. Henin had four double faults in the opening set. The top-ranked Belgian made the decisive break at 3-3 when Zvonareva hit the ball long, and then broke again at 5-3.

Roger Federer overlooked his recent history against Guillermo Canas, routing the 14th-ranked Argentine 6-0, 6-3 Thursday in the third round of the Madrid Masters. Canas, who beat Federer in consecutive tournaments in March, was broken at love in the second game. Two more breaks of serve gave Federer the first set in 21 minutes.

Andy Murray met with ATP officials Wednesday to discuss comments he made about gambling in tennis. “I didn’t tell them anything new,” said Murray, who has reached the second round at the Madrid Masters. “They weren’t really gathering information, they were just finding out exactly what happened, so I told them.” Last week, the 17th-ranked Murray said that corruption in tennis was common knowledge.

Serena Williams has qualified for next month’s season-ending WTA Championships in Madrid. Williams arrived at the Zurich Open on Monday to discover she was the fifth player to qualify, along with Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic. The Australian Open champion reached Sunday’s final of the Kremlin Cup before losing to Elena Dementieva.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova has pulled out of the Zurich Open, which starts Monday, because of a lingering shoulder injury. The fourth-ranked Russian announced the withdrawal on her Web site Sunday. Sharapova will also miss the Generali Ladies in Linz, Austria, starting Oct. 22, which she also won last year.

Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus defeated qualifier Evgeniya Rodina of Russia 6-4, 6-3 Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Tashkent Open. The 17-year-old Azarenka, who reached the fourth round at the U.S. Open, had one break in the first set and two in the second to reach the quarters for the third straight tournament.

A women’s tennis match drew suspicion for unusual betting patterns, and the WTA Tour was investigating Thursday — two months after the men’s tour began a probe into gambling on a match. Betfair, an online betting site, briefly delayed payment after 120th-ranked Mariya Koryttseva beat No. 96 Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus 6-4, 6-2 on Sept.