The Grand Slam season began today with a major match-fixing controversy.
A new joint investigative report by BuzzFeed News and the BBC alleges 16 players—all of whom have ranked in the Top 50—have been linked to match-fixing, but charge the game's governing bodies have not addressed the issue.
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BuzzFeed News and the BBC charge "widespread match fixing by players at the upper level of the tennis world" in the new investigating report titled The Tennis Racket.
The report is based on interviews, an analysis of betting patterns on 26,000 matches and information from leaked documents, "The Fixing Files," within the sport.
Among the bombshell allegations from the report:
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Grand Slam singles and doubles champions are among "the core group of 16 players who have repeatedly been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets have been placed against them."
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An unnamed Top-50 player playing the Australian Open is suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set.
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Players are being targeted in hotel rooms at major tournaments and "offered $50,000 or more per fix by corrupt gamblers."
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Gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy have "made hundreds of thousands of pounds placing highly suspicious bets on scores of matches – including at Wimbledon and the French Open."
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The names of more than 70 players appear on leaked lists of suspected fixers who have "been flagged up to the tennis authorities over the past decade without being sanctioned."
In a press conference today at the Australian Open, ATP officials said the BBC and BuzzFeed reports "mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information."
ATP Executive Chairman and President Chris Kermode denied charges the game's governing bodies have failed to follow up on charges of match-fixing against Top 50 players.
"It's always a disappointment when stories come out like this just before the big event, because it does detract," Kermode said. "But we are so confident that, you know, there is nothing in the sport that is being suppressed. We are confident that the Tennis Integrity Unit is doing what it can and tackles this issue very, very seriously. I think it will be, you know, seen that tennis is in a very, very good place and we are acting accordingly."
However, Richard Ings, former executive vice president for rules and competition at the ATP, told BuzzFeed match-fixing was a "regular thing" in tennis. He said the integrity unit’s response has been "very disappointing" and it is "far too secretive."
Asked directly if any players competing at the Australian Open are being monitored, Nigel Willerton, director of the Tennis Integrity Unit, replied: "It would be inappropriate for me to make comment as to whether any players are under investigation at the present time."
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