Once upon a time it was normal to chastise a player for their lack of focus or, simply, their ineptness on the field.
Now, when gun tennis players commit a double fault in a match-defining set you don't simply put it down to lethargy, injury or innuendo to a late night out at some swanky bar.
No, you find yourself analysing slow-motion replays to try to ascertain if there's something dodgy about certain passages of play.
That scepticism is often relative to the pedigree of the player. Did their eyes give it away? Maybe it was the manner in which the players shook hands after the match.
I mean how does a top seed succumb to someone whose knee or ankle is strapped heavily in bandage?
That is no different to a footballer who scores countless goals all season but then struggles to slot the ball into the net from a penalty kick.
Was the veteran player thinking of his or her retirement funds when they dropped a catch, pulled a sickie or let the ball trickle between their legs into an open goalmouth from what was a feeble shot anyway.
The repercussions of "tennis racket" leading up to the Australian Open in progress is just another episode of what should have been a long-running soap entitled, Don't Believe Everything You See.
No doubt, in some cases, it's pretty obvious some players are on obscenely lucrative incomes through endorsements regardless of whether they keep winning major events on the field or arena.
They simply have too much at stake to enter any illicit arrangements to jeopardise their glitzy profiles.
That is not to say bookies didn't prey on them when they were more vulnerable during the infancy stages of their careers.
In many respects, I take back all the criticism I showered on the many strains of WWF that openly admitted they simulated action on the canvas although it required immense skills to enact it and quite often they were injured executing those moves.
The latest transgressing code, tennis, it seems, is just the tip of the iceberg on how far shady characters will go to influence protagonists, especially those of an impressionable age and those who are journeymen.
In countries where abject poverty is rife - for example in the subcontinent in cricket and Eastern Bloc countries in Europe as well as South America - some mitigating factors kick in, although it is inexcusable.
In affluent parts of the world it's difficult to comprehend and it basically boils down to stupidity and/or greed.
For that reason, there seems to be a degree of empathy for Pakistan bowler Mohammad Amir touring New Zealand despite the alleged antics of pockets of fans at the Basin Reserve on Monday. He is returning from a five-year ban for deliberately bowling two no-balls and serving a three-year jail term for his lack of foresight as a teenager.
Do New Zealand have fruitfly-free status, as it were, in cricket after the Chris Cairns' trial revelations?
What do our Black Caps have to endure on tour from boisterous embankment fans abroad?
The reality is many other codes must have transgressors but how many really want to enter a witch-hunt when there's so much money to be made.
To have betting agencies' hoardings skirting sport arenas in itself beggars belief.
Perhaps what is even more disconcerting is marquee players who simply pooh-pooh allegations levelled at them despite openly admitting they were approached.
Novak Djokovic comes to mind, having reportedly revealed he was offered 10,000 to throw a game at the St Petersburg Open in 2006.
The Serb claims everything is speculation and he's right, but what impact will that have on disillusioned fans and the sport?
When you come to think of it, how many tour winners, let alone grand slam ones, can claim they are bona fide champions.
They, too, must feel cheated, wondering if so-and-so hadn't had an upset loss would their passage to victory have been a stroll across the park.
Like it or not, upsets are a form of endorsement that a code's in good health competitively . However, the results of games are as conclusive as Hawk-Eye judging line balls in tennis or the bounce on cricket wickets.
