Show us proof that tennis is fixed, demands defiant Roger Federer

The world No. 1 spoke about the offer in the wake of allegations about widespread corruption at the top levels of tennis.

Among the allegations made by Buzzfeed News and BBC News are that 16 players have been repeatedly highlighted as having potentially thrown matches, with concerns reported to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU).

Roger Federer has called for the identities of players involved in match-fixing to be revealed as allegations of corruption sweep through the sport.

Results and the scorching heat weren’t what most people were talking about on the first day of the Australian Open.

The players have not been named because it would be hard to prove whether they took part in match fixing without having access to their personal records.

The report said the probe uncovered syndicates in Russian Federation and Italy making hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on matches investigators thought to be fixed.

Like Djokovic, Williams won three of the four major titles last season, but hadn’t finished a competitive match for months.

But Association of Tennis Professionals president Chris Kermode said the global tour was “not complacent” and was “committed to stamping out corrupt conduct in the sport” via the Tennis Integrity Unit investigative body. On the contrary, people are talking about names, guessing who these players are and guessing those names, but there is no real proof or evidence yet of any active players for that matter.

Despite an increasing amount of evidence of suspicious activity revolving around a significant number of top players, no sanctions were handed out and the investigation was officially shelved the following year.

“I do think it’s important that from a younger age players are better educated and are made more aware of what they should do in those situations and how a decision like that can affect your career, can affect the whole sport”, he said.

Buzzfeed journalist John Templeton analysed data from 26,000 matches and says he discovered a group of players displaying abnormally poor performance in matches that had attracted unusual betting patterns.

“You know, I know that there are also many betting companies that on the websites are using the names, the brands, images of tournaments and players and matches in order to profit from that”.

Due to the sheer volume of matches in professional tennis, it’s hard to catch everyone, according to Kermode.

Players seemed unaware of any problem with match-fixing with both Williams and Japan’s Kei Nishikori saying they hadn’t noticed anything untoward. Was it a doubles player, a singles player?

Mr Kermode said: “No player or official is immune from investigation, regardless of their status or position in the sport”.

“They could have got rid of a network of players that would have nearly completely cleared the sport up…”

Djokovic, after opening with a win over South Korea’s Chung Hyeon, played down the report but he also said he was targeted in 2007 to throw a first-round match in St Petersburg.