Cameron demands probe into tennis match-fixing claims

It has received many accusations against players in the past 10 years, the BBC and Buzzfeed reported.

Melbourne/St. Petersburg, Jan 19 (IANS) World No. 2 Andy Murray has called on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to ramp up education about the dangers of corruption in the wake of widespread match fixing accusations by players even as denials and ignorance were expressed as reactions to the report of malpractice in the sport.

Murray has had enough.

“We also work closely with law enforcement, because the tennis anti-corruption program does mirror criminal offenses basically, but we are not law enforcement”, said Willerton. And it’s not just sport.

Djokovic did confirm, though, that members of his team in the mid-2000s were approached to throw a match in Russian Federation.

They [young players] shouldn’t have to read it in the press, you have to be proactive and go and speak to the players rather than them reading about it in the newspapers or listening to it on the TV or the radio.

What has become crystal clear over the past few days is that the players are pretty much in the dark about what is going on. “If that’s going on, I don’t know about it”. “I think that as an athlete, I do everything I can to be not only great, but historic”. In some ways you have to protect some players. “Then at least it’s concrete and you can actually debate it. Was it the player?”

‘Since 2009 all professional players, support staff and officials have been subject to this stringent code, which makes it compulsory to report any corrupt approaches or knowledge of suspected corrupt practices to the TIU. I think we deserve to know everything that’s out there’.

I would just like to point out that it is very hard to predict the outcome of a match.

Davydenko was world number four at the time and should have breezed through the match, but retired part way through. “And I hope they don’t play at all”.

One of the investigators, Mark Phillips, told the BBC: “The evidence was very strong, as strong as we had seen really”.

Until now, the average fan may have had little idea that tennis is one of the most gambled on sports in the world, with bookmakers actively taking bets mid-match. “I would like to know about that as well”. A young player struggling on the bottom rungs of the rankings ladder, earning chicken feed in the smallest tournaments on the
circuit – a player like that may be
tempted.

At a hastily convened news conference at the tournament on Monday, ATP chairman Chris Kermode rejected the assertion that match-fixing had gone unchecked, saying the TIU remained “constantly vigilant and not complacent” when it comes to tackling corruption.

“Players could be better educated at a young age”, he said.

This is not just an ATP issue: the whole of tennis must take responsibility for the unusual betting patterns that continue to manifest at the lower levels (Challenger and Futures tournaments) on a weekly or sometimes daily basis. “For me, that’s an act of unsportsmanship, a crime in sport honestly”. “Tennis hasn’t been really getting the piece of that cake, if you know what I mean”.

Williams’ next opponent will be 18-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina, who beat Croatia’s Ana Konjuh 6-4, 6-3, and she faces a potential quarterfinal match against 2015 finalist Maria Sharapova, who reached the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.