The Australian Open kicked off today, but tennis has a large storm cloud hovering over it to begin the 2016 Grand Slam slate. BBC and BuzzFeed have uncovered a match-fixing scandal that reportedly involves 16 of tennis’ Top 50 players, and spans decades.
One player speaking out about the scandal is the current top-ranked men’s player, Novak Djokovic, who admitted he was approached early in his career about throwing a match. Djokovic claims he turned down £110,000 to lose.
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“It made me feel terrible because I don’t want to be in any way linked to this,” Djokovic said. "I was approached through people working with me. Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn't even get to me."
Djokovic downplayed the emerging scandal though, and believes that match-fixing is not a plague that afflicts the upper crust of the sport.
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"From my knowledge and information about match-fixing, there is nothing happening at the top level, as far as I know. At challenger level, maybe, maybe not. But I'm not entitled to really talk about it. I can give my opinion.”
17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer said he would like to hear names attached to the reports, but that he, like Djokovic, would be surprised if there was match-fixing involving top players.
"I would love to hear names,'' Federer said. "Then at least it's concrete stuff and you can actually debate about it. It's super serious and it's super important to maintain the integrity of our sport.”
The events in BBC and BuzzFeed’s report focus on events from nearly 10 years ago, and Chris Kermode, head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, strongly denied that evidence of match-fixing has "been suppressed for any reason or isn't being thoroughly investigated.”
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