While expressing his views on recent allegation of widespread match-fixing in tennis, world No. 2 Andy Murray on Tuesday urged authorities to be proactive in their approach in fight against corruption.
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Speaking at the Australian Open after his first round win, Murray was critical of the ATP rules that stipulate players cannot be sponsored by bookmakers, but the tournament itself can be backed by William Hill.
“As soon as I walked onto the court, I knew I was ready”.
Andy Murray of Britain hits a backhand return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.
“I think it’s a little bit hypocritical, really, ” Murray said.
When contacted, the Tennis Integrity Unit said they wanted to talk to the anonymous player directly and dismissed “any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed”. “There are many great things about it. It’s a little bit, sorry for the language, s****y to read that and sort of see that the attention of the first grand slam of the year is more on that than I think the Australian Open, which is one of the four biggest events we play”. “Yesterday I got more than 40”.
The BBC continued to drive the story that broke earlier in the week, exclusively interviewing an anonymous player who explained the process and how commonplace it was.
Nadal endured a hard 2015 that saw him fail to win a grand slam for the first time since 2004, but a strong end to the season had given him hope of better things to come in the next 12 months.
“I don’t think (education) is done very well. Then my answer would be different to the situation because right now I think it’s damning the sport for no reason”.
Murray believes that young players must be better educated about the dangers of corruption.
World number 14 Milos Raonic bemoaned the fact the report was overshadowing the Australian Open and said he too had never been approached, on social media or otherwise, to fix a match.
“It wasn’t nice [to be ranked so low] but it’s the sport we play and obviously I’ve come out the other side, and I am hopefully going up the rankings now”, the 25 year old told BBC Sport.
“And, yeah, I think across all sports – again, I don’t think that that’s done particularly well. I’m going to serve big and try to get forward and play aggressively, everything I do normally”. She had just one ace compared to five for the Briton.
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Serving to stay in the match at 5-3, the youngster staved off two match points but was unable to defend a third as a forehand into the net confirmed Murray’s win in two hours and seven minutes. I answered the phone and they were, like: “‘We’re just at your door with the room service.’ I just couldn’t hear them knocking at the door”.
