That approach didn’t reach him directly, he said, and was rejected immediately.
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After admitting he was offered $200,000 to lose a match during a tournament in Russian Federation eight years ago, Djokovic found himself as one of the suspected match fixers, according to an Italian newspaper.
Djokovic, 28, says the match has only been re-examined following a corruption investigation by the media.
“What (is there) to say?”
“The match could have gone either way”, Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “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.
During a break in commentating for a sports channel, Chris Evert said the scandal had deeply affected her. “I have been so sad about this the last few days”, the 18-time Grand Slam victor said.
“I’ve been aware of it (match-fixing) since I was quite young and I think when people come with big sums of money when you’re at that age, some people can make mistakes”, Murray said.
By the last weeks of the season he was exhausted and at the Masters Cup in Shanghai following that defeat to Santoro, he did not win a set in three round-robin matches.
The busy day of action helped take the focus off corruption claims which have overshadowed the year’s first Grand Slam after a report said players had been suspected of fixing matches but never faced action.
The report suggests match-fixing exists higher up the food chain, including at Wimbledon, and could involve players now competing at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Roger Federer hopes his children choose not to follow in their father’s footsteps as the Swiss says he would grow bored with 40 years of tennis.
Agnieszka Radwanska has reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open for the sixth straight year, beating Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig 6-4, 6-0.
Japanese seventh seed Kei Nishikori beat his close friend Austin Krajicek 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 as he pressed his bid for a first Grand Slam title.
Roger Federer will take on “Baby Fed” Grigor Dimitrov in the last match of the early session on Rod Laver.
The 17-time major victor and third seed won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in two hours, 40 minutes under the closed roof on Rod Laver Arena and will face Belgium’s 15th seed David Goffin in the next round.
The world No. 1 accelerated through the first two sets, illustrating the type of ruthless tennis that scooped three majors in 2015.
Djokovic, then the world No3, lost 6-3, 6-2 to the Frenchman who was ranked 36 places below him.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga went to the aid of a ball girl in his match, gently helping her off the court in the third set when she became ill before finishing off a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 win over Omar Jasika.
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.
“It all started here”.
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On Tuesday, an unidentified former South American tennis player said on the BBC’s World Have Your Say programme that fixing issues were “like a secret on the tour that everybody knows, but we don’t talk about it. You know who is doing it, and who is not”. “I speak Italian. I love Italy I guess”.
