Tennis 'match-fixing' cover-up claims denied

  • Sport

Tennis has been hit by claims of widespread match-fixing at the elite level of the sport.

The names of 16 players have been flagged repeatedly to the Tennis Integrity Unit over the last decade amid fears they have thrown matches but no action was taken, according to a joint investigation by BBC News and Buzzfeed News.

According to the investigation, suspects include Grand Slam singles and doubles champions with some of the alleged rigging taking place at some of the sport's biggest tournaments, including Wimbledon and the French Open.

All 16 players were allowed to continue competing, it is reported.

Tennis match-rigging allegations: The key points

  • The 'core group' of players reportedly involved include winners of singles and doubles Grand Slams.

  • One top-50 player competing in the Australian Open is suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set, it is claimed.

  • Over 70 players apparently appear on nine leaked lists of suspected fixers who had been flagged up to tennis authorities over a period of ten years without being sanctioned.

  • It is suggested that players are being targeted in hotel rooms at major tournaments and offered £35,200 ($50,000) or more per fix by corrupt gamblers.

Gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy have made hundreds of thousands of pounds making extremely suspicious bets on matches - including at Wimbledon and the French Open, according to the investigation.

The Tennis Integrity Unit - an office set up to police the sport - told the BBC that it had a zero-tolerance approach to betting corruption.

But it is claimed in the investigation that the referrals to the TIU were prompted by an investigation which started in 2007 following an inquiry into suspicious betting patterns in a match between Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello.

Both men were cleared of breaking any rules.

Despite an increasing amount of evidence of suspicious activity revolving around a significant number of top players, no sanctions were handed out and the investigation was officially shelved the following year.

Betting investigator Mark Phillips believes the findings of the original 2007 inquiry should have been followed up and acted upon by the relevant authorities.

Match-rigging is alleged to have taken place at the French Open. Credit: PA

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the start of the Australian Open on Monday, ATP President Chris Kermode denied that any suspected wrongdoing had been covered up.

In addition to the initial dossier of evidence, Buzzfeed News says it has devised an algorithm which analysed gambling on professional tennis matches over the last seven years.

Buzzfeed claims its results identified 15 players who regularly featured in matches involving unusually lopsided betting patterns.

Furthermore, four of those players lost almost all of those matches concerned, at a probability of around 1,000 to one.