Chairman Kermode and the Tennis Integrity United have rejected news reports that match-fixing has gone unchecked in the sport.
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Novak Djokovic opened his Australian Open title defense with a straight-sets win, before going to the defense of his sport as reports of match-fixing overshadowed the first day of the season-opening Grand Slam. This just goes to prove that sadly no sport in the world is entirely free of corruption and criminals will find a way to taint the sanctity of sportsmanship, be it in the case of cricket, tennis or football.
Chris Kermode, the president of the ATP, has rejected any implication of a cover-up into match-fixing after an investigation by the BBC in conjunction with BuzzFeed pointed an accusatory finger at a grand slam champion and seven others in the main draw of the Australian Open.
An investigation carried out by the BBC and Buzzfeed alleges that over the last decade a core group of 16 players have been brought to the attention of the sport’s governing bodies over suspicions they have fixed matches.
“The TIU and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed for any reason”.
“While the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we investigate any new information, and we always do”.
Djokovic added: “It made me feel awful because I don’t want to be in any way linked to this – somebody may call it an opportunity”.
“I think serve is something that I take out from today’s match as the best part of my game”.
“I haven’t played in a long time, but I have been playing for 30 years, so it’s kind of – I try to focus on that”, said Williams, who dropped only one service game against Giorgi.
Three of these games were at Wimbledon, the reports said.
He and this month’s Brisbane champion Milos Raonic, though, felt that instructions were clear about what to do if approached to fix matches.
MELBOURNE, Australia Roger Federer has heard enough speculation about match-fixing in tennis. But we don’t necessarily know that those 16 players or anyone else in our universe was definitively fixing the matches. “I personally was never approached directly, so I have nothing more to say about that”.
One player who doesn’t need the Grunting Tennis Racquet is Victoria Azarenka, Sharapova’s rival in volume and a two-time Australian Open victor who makes her entrance on Tuesday.
“I was not approached directly”, the Serbian said. Since then, the reports said, the ATP has repeatedly been warned about numerous same players, but hasn’t taken any action against them. But I’m always very curious with that stuff across really all sports, as well.
“At the moment, we know that there’s a tennis integrity unit, we know that there’s money being put into the programme- $14 in the past several years- and we know that there’s players who have been suspended and banned for breaches of the programme”, he says.
The reports say the players – it doesn’t identify the players or say whether they were involved in singles or doubles – were allowed to continue competing.
Chung is considered one of the most talented prospects on the tour but Djokovic made light work of the 19-year-old in the Rod Laver Arena, winning 6-3 6-2 6-4. “There can be a lot of smoke and you can even see a few embers there but actually getting these, you know, players and syndicates, you know, up in front of a judge and getting them found guilty is going to be incredibly hard”.
“I don’t support it. I think there is no room for it in any sport, especially in tennis”.
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Kei Nishikori of Japan reacts to a lost point during his second round match against Austin Krajicek of the United States during their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016.
