Foul, indeed. Reports of corruption and gangsters have shaken up the sports world after multiple news agencies broke stories of widespread match fixing in international tennis tournaments — including some at the prestigious Wimbleton tournament.
Now, some of tennis’ top players are calling for heads to roll. Others loudly wonder if the sports integrity can ever be recovered.
The start of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open, was overshadowed by the corruption allegations on Monday.
Two mainstream media entities, the BBC and Buzzfeed News, first published these reports, which allege match-fixing had gone unchecked in tennis for over a decade.
No players were identified in the reports, which alleged 16 players had been flagged repeatedly by tennis authorities but not sanctioned on suspicion of match fixing. Half of those are entered in the Australian Open, the reports said.
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, top player Novak Djokovic recalled his own brush with match-fixing. “I was approached through people that were working with me at that time, that were with my team,” he said.
Djokovic was an up-and-coming player at the time, not winning the first of his 10 major titles until the 2008 Australian Open.
“It made me feel terrible because I don’t want to be anyhow linked to this kind of — you know, somebody may call it an opportunity,” he said. “For me, that’s an act of unsportsmanship, a crime in sport honestly. I think there is no room for it in any sport, especially in tennis.”
Roger Federer, a 17-time major winner and former leader of the player council, agreed the allegations were “super serious.”
“I would love to hear names,” Federer said. “Then at least it’s concrete stuff and you can actually debate about it. Was it the player? Was it the support team? Who was it? Was it before? Was it a doubles player, a singles player? Which slam?
“It’s super serious and it’s super important to maintain the integrity of our sport. So how high up does it go? The higher it goes, the more surprised I would be, no doubt about it.”
The original report can be found here.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Oh my! Even a sport like tennis isn’t exempt from these allegations! What will happen next?
There goes the veneer of Pro Tennis then .
boycott games?? lose revenue, blame Tennis organz execs etc.
Name names.
for those that want to save Pro Tennis,.
OK fans step up to the Net & Serve.
Any time large amounts of money are involved you are going to have criminals trying to cheat the system. This should be investigated. Players who participated in this scheme should be permanently sideline and ALL their wins should be voided. Jail time and banishment from professional sports should await every person involved in this scandal.
agree, has zero place in Tennis. That is supposed to be above such stuff but apparently isn’t. Some of the players know about it and apparently said NO! Good.
The actual sportsmen and women are the victims. The “workers of iniquity” that make the bribes, in order to profit from their bets on the winning person or team, are the ones who deserve to be punished. Many are the rich, such as Sheldon Adelson, the casino owner of Los Vegas, whose billions are derived from the debauchery of gambling and related activities.
MATCH FIXING!!! Starts with the TENNIS ASSOCIATION FIRST, by matching weaker with stronger players so the
stronger players always play in the semi-matches or finals!!! As I said, this is were this problem starts…
Too many white players in the sport and it is an individual sport where these nameless accusations amount to jack-sh^t! I suppose they need to incorporate more tattooed thugs into the sport! Let us hear some details, azzholes!
Let’s start from sport in middle schools. They don’t let play to everybody. They choose the best players and let only them to play. How the hell somebody who never played earlier can even learn how to play. All games in school should be learn by all children. It is cruel for children left behind . Then we are asking why some children behaving not properly . They got lesson -they are ignored by school.
Where’s the evidence?