Tennis hit by fixing reports Greg Stutchbury

A South American tennis player claims match-fixing rewards are “huge money” and the shameful conduct is “a secret on the tour everybody knows”. Novak Djokovic, 20 at the time, said he wasn’t approached directly but through a middle man. “I was approached through people that were working with me at that time”.

“Name the fixers”- that’s the message from Roger Federer.

Djokovic said he didn’t think match fixing was pervasive at elite levels of the sport, but it is a problem in tennis’ lower levels, where athletes battle to pay for travel and training expenses in addition to their own bills. “The higher it goes, the more surprised I would be, no doubt about it”, he said.

Tennis authorities now under pressure to react have rejected that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed, according to a statement from Melbourne.

And, yeah, I guess as a player you just want to be made aware kind of everything that’s going on.

“I would love to hear names”, Federer said after advancing to the second round.

– The world of professional tennis was rocked by a major gambling scandal Monday after a leaked report named dozens of players suspected of rigging matches in exchange for cash, and one of the sport’s biggest stars said he wanted those names public.

On Sunday, the BBC and BuzzFeed published an investigative report alleging widespread match-fixing and corruption in tennis that is reverberating around the world. “To come back here and play my first match on Rod Laver is always very special as you always get those first little jitters out of the way”. “The issue is elsewhere, it’s in the player’s mind”.

The pros in question had reportedly been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TUI), but were free to continue their careers with impunity, a revelation this week that led to cries of a cover-up at the highest level. There was nothing out of it. Unfortunately, there were some, in those times, those days, rumours, some talk, some people were going around. Which Grand Slam? It’s (the report) so all over the place.

“I think across all sports, I don’t think that that’s done particularly well”. ATP said it would conduct an investigation into the matter, but announced in 2008 that there was “no evidence of a violation of its rules by either Mr. Arguello or Mr. Davydenko”. Was it the support team?

When that happens, the players just have to do the right thing, said doubles No. 1 Marcelo Melo.

“We have, I think, a sport (that has) evolved and upgraded our programs and authorities to deal with these particular cases”, he said.

The former Wimbledon and US Open champion said he had never been approached about rigging a match himself, but was aware of some of the allegations swirling around the game. “Both players were cleared of violating any rules but the investigation developed into a much wider enquiry looking into a web of gamblers linked to top-level players”, according to the BBC. They include five players and one official who have been banned from the sport. It’s nonsense to answer something that is pure speculation.

“The evidence was really strong, there appeared to be a really good chance to nip it in the bud and get a strong deterrent out there to root out the main bad apples”. He lost in the third round in his first two trips to Melbourne Park in 2000 and ’01 and again last year – in between he won the title four times and lost one final during a run of reaching the semifinals or better in 11 straight years.