Tennis stars, past and present, want names of match-fixers

Halys put up a good fight but Djokovic calmly closed out the match in the third set tiebreak.

In last year’s Australian Open, Federer was eliminated in the third round by Italy’s Andreas Seppi, who faces world No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the same half of the Swiss’ group bracket.

The six-time and defending champion beat No. 90-ranked Hsieh Su-wei 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday at Rod Laver Arena, an all-time record 79th main draw match at the Australian Open.

World number one Novak Djokovic, who has revealed he was offered a bribe to lose in 2006, and turned it down, said he felt betting companies’ involvement was “borderline” but Wawrinka was more sympathetic.

Kermode said he “absolutely rejects” the suggestion that match-fixing evidence had been suppressed and dismissed comparisons with other corruption cover-ups in football at FIFA and in athletics at the IAAF.

After his second-round win, he was asked about an Italian newspaper report casting doubt over his performance in a match against Fabrice Santoro in Paris in 2007.

He said after the match that after he got treatment, the wrist “got better”.

“What (is there) to say?” “I don’t think it’s going to be easy”, Serena Williams said of her night match at Rod Laver. “I don’t know if you’re trying to create a story about that match or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds, I think it’s just absurd”, said Djokovic. Yeah, I think it’s a wonderful place, the tennis tour, otherwise I wouldn’t be on it.

The scandal broke Monday when the BBC and BuzzFeed News published reports – timed for the start of the Australian Open – alleging that tennis authorities have ignored widespread evidence of match-fixing involving 16 tennis players who have ranked in the top 50 over the past decade.

“It’s not true”, Djokovic said.

The fifth-seeded Sharapova won the 2008 Australian title and has lost three finals at Melbourne Park, including last year’s decider against Williams.

Speculation over the identity of the players, who were not named, has overshadowed early action at the first grand slam tournament of the year. “I’m sure corruption and problems for a gambling website or gambling company, it’s not good”.

“But there’s always a danger, you know”.

And Roberta Vinci was knocked out by Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam in three sets, meaning there will be no rematch of last year’s US Open semi-final when she halted Williams’ bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam.

Federer will next play Grigor Dimitrov, who has a style that has been compared with Federer’s, after the No. 27-seeded player beat Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

“The match could have gone either way”, Djokovic said in his on-court interview.

Meanwhile on Show Court 2, Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut caused a major boilover, uprooting U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.

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.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year, who will fly home if Kim, 28, goes into labour, added while he was excited about the birth, the timing of the Open made it “a bit more stressful than maybe it needed to be”. There is a cone of silence about what the TIU actually do and none of these players ever get caught, even though the same names may come up time and time again.

In the biggest upset of the day, two-time Wimbledon champion and sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Russian-born Australian Daria Gavrilova.

Kei Nishikori continued to cruise through his matches in Melbourne with a comfortable 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win over American Austin Krajicek on Margaret Court on Wednesday.

Chris Eaton, director of integrity at the International Centre for Sport Security in Doha, was speaking after a report claimed several players suspected of being serial match-fixers had never been punished.