Novak Djokovic angrily denies claim he lost a game deliberately in 2007

“This is now the main story in tennis, in [the] sports world, there’s going to be a lot of allegations”, he said.

“I have been so sad about this the last few days”, the 18-time Grand Slam victor said.

“Until somebody comes out with the real proof and evidence, it’s only a speculation for me”, was Djokovic’s understandable response on Wednesday night.

Djokovic had previously explained how he turned down a bribe made to him in 2006, when he was offered 200,000 U.S. dollars – £141,000 on the current exchange rate – to lose a first-round match in St Petersburg.

Djokovic admitted at the time that he was struggling to perform at his best during the match in question because of dental surgery he had prior to the Paris Masters to remove two wisdom teeth.

Federer was among the first to demand more information: “I would love to hear names”, the Swiss star said Monday at a post-match news conference.

Asked if he had found preparing for his match against Seppi hard, Djokovic said: “Honestly I’ve had quite a few press conferences in my life”.

Djokovic added yesterday that he had said all he wanted to about the corruption allegations and refused to discuss it any further, except to say that he was disappointed the sport was faced with questions about integrity.

The 10-time Grand Slam champion survived two set points in a final set tiebreaker before completing a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) win and his 12th straight over Seppi, and will now play Frenchman Gilles Simon.

Federer will play in the third round for the 17th straight occasion after brushing aside tricky second round opponent Alexandr Dolgopolov.

A tennis corruption official, as well as a former tennis professional, have claimed match fixing is common in the sport and efforts to combat it are minimal.

The Serb took basically the same line as tennis statesman Roger Federer, who also said that endless and unsubstantiated guessing was not helping in the explosive situation.

They beat 16th seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska in 6-1 7-6 (9/7) and will face fellow Brits Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith, who beat Chen Liang and Shuai Peng 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7/2). It didn’t even get to me, the guy that was trying to talk to me, he didn’t even get to me directly.

But it wasn’t an entirely convincing display from the four-time Australian Open victor who committed an uncharacteristic 55 unforced efforts, much more than Dimitrov’s 44. “I think it’s just absurd”. Punters can bet on anything from total games in a match to the outcome of individual points: an array of options that means that a player could fix only a handful of points and no-one would be any the wiser.

By the last weeks of the season he was exhausted and at the Masters Cup in Shanghai following that defeat to Santoro, he did not win a set in three round-robin matches.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Maria Sharapova advanced to the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich, staying on course for a potential quarterfinal meeting with Serena Williams.