Djokovic involved in explosives scandal : Novak Djokovic ‘felt terrible’ about …
Tennis match-fixing: Novak Djokovic ‘felt terrible’ about approach in 2006 as players react to scandal
Posted Mon 18 Jan 2016 at 9:56amMonday 18 Jan 2016 at 9:56am, updated Mon 18 Jan 2016 at 9:55pmMonday 18 Jan 2016 at 9:55pm
Novak Djokovic
Fixing offer … Novak Djokovic.(AAP: Lukas Coch)
World number one and Australian Open favourite Novak Djokovic has revealed he “felt terrible” about being approached to fix a tennis match when he was a teenager in 2006.
was approached to fix a tennis match in 2006
World number one insists he never spoke to the fixer, says fixing is “a crime in sport”
Serena Williams says she has never seen anything on-court to suggest fixing is taking place
16 players lost games when suspicious bets were placed against them, reports say
Tennis authorities aware of match-fixing, but ATP president believes any activity on “incredibly small level”
Tennis authorities have rejected claims of evidence suppression after a joint BBC-BuzzFeed investigation said current and former top 50 players, including several at this month’s Australian Open, are suspected match-fixers.
The report said a strong body of evidence was behind a referral of a core group of 16 men – including grand slam winners – to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) in 2008.
Djokovic said he had been approached to throw a match 10 years ago, but stressed he had never spoken to the fixer.
“I was not approached directly. I was approached through people that were working with me at that time,” he said in Melbourne.
“Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn’t even get to me, the guy that was trying to talk to me, didn’t even get to me directly. There was nothing out of it.
“Unfortunately in those times [there were] rumours, some talks, some people were going around. They were dealt with.
“In the last six, seven years, I haven’t heard anything similar. I personally was never approached directly, so I have nothing more to say about that.”
WATCH
Duration: 7 minutes 4 seconds7m
Allegations of match fixing rock tennis world(Louise Milligan)
Djokovic was reportedly offered $US200,000 ($290,000) to throw the match, but the Serb insisted match-fixing is “a crime in sport”.
“[The approach] made me feel terrible because I don’t want to be anyhow linked to this kind of thing,” he said.
“Somebody may call it an opportunity. For me, that’s an act of unsportsmanship, a crime in sport, honestly. I don’t support it.
“I think there is no room for it in any sport, especially in tennis. I always have been taught and have been surrounded with people that had nurtured and respected the sport’s values. That’s the way I’ve grown up.
“Fortunately for me, I didn’t need to get directly involved in these particular situations.”
‘No real proof’ of fixing today: Djokovic
The findings of the joint investigation:
A US Open champion and doubles winners at Wimbledon were among a core group of 16 players who had repeatedly been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets have been placed against them;
One top-50 ranked player competing in the Australian Open is suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set;
Players were being targeted in hotel rooms at major tournaments and offered $US50,000 ($73,100) or more per fix by corrupt gamblers;
Gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy have made hundreds of thousands of dollars placing highly suspicious bets on scores of matches — including at Wimbledon and the French Open;
The names of more than 70 players appear on nine leaked lists of suspected fixers who have been flagged to world tennis authorities over the past decade without being sanctioned.
However, Djokovic said there was “no real proof” of match-fixing among top players on the tennis circuit today.
Evidence uncovered by the joint investigation also included a bundle of leaked internal documents – the so-called Fixing Files – and analysis of betting on 26,000 tennis matches.
The leaked files reportedly contained evidence of suspected match-fixing by gambling syndicates based in Russia and Italy uncovered as a result of an investigation in 2008, but over which no action had been taken.
No players have faced sanction, and none are named in the report.
Djokovic, speaking after his first-round victory at the Australian Open, said the allegations were just that.
“I don’t think the shadow is cast over our sport,” he said.
Serena Williams
“There’s no real proof or evidence yet of any active players … as long as it’s like that, it’s just speculation. We have to keep it that way.”
Top women’s seed Serena Williams said she was not aware of any match-fixing in tennis.
Williams admitted she was not overly well-versed on the story, but said she had not seen any signs of it.
“I can only answer for me. I play very hard and every player that I play seems to play hard,” she told reporters after her first-round win over Camila Giorgi.
“As an athlete I do everything I can to be, not only great, but historic and if that’s going on, I don’t know about. Sometimes I’m in a bubble.”
Buzzfeed journalist calls for more transparency in tennis
Significant evidence of match fixing among tennis top 50: Buzzfeed
Significant evidence of match fixing among tennis top 50: Buzzfeed
BuzzFeed journalist Heidi Blake defended her report, calling for more transparency from tennis authorities.
“In secret, behind closed doors, [tennis authorities] looked at the files … files full of evidence investigators themselves said was the strongest evidence they’d ever had,” she told the ABC.
“These are experienced betting, corruption and crime investigators.
There’s no real proof or evidence yet of any active players … as long as it’s like that, it’s just speculation.
“Tennis authorities looked at it and they decided not to investigate it further.
“I do think world tennis has some really serious questions to answer about why this evidence was under lock and key for so long.”
World number 15 Gilles Simon slammed the report.
“It’s useless … just dropping a bomb to (get people to) talk about it, waiting for the first day of a slam,” said Simon, who is also the ATP Player Council’s vice president.
“If anyone has any evidence, say it, and we’ll be happy to know and take action.
“There is not much to say because there was not much inside.”
Martin Vassallo Arguello and Nikolay Davydenko
ATP president Chris Kermode told a press conference in Melbourne that there was no truth to suggestions that tennis authorities were not taking match-fixing seriously or failing to investigate allegations.
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Duration: 4 minutes 37 seconds4m 37s
ATP denies failure to act on tennis match fixing(Samantha Donovan)
“The Tennis Integrity Unit and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed for they reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated,” he said.
It’s useless … just dropping a bomb to (get people to) talk about it, waiting for the first day of a slam.If anyone has any evidence, say it, and we’ll be happy to know and take action.
“While the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information and we always do.”
Kermode had earlier told the BBC that while match-fixing did occur in tennis, he believed it was at an “incredibly small level”.
“I think it will be seen that tennis is in a very, very good place and we are acting accordingly,” he said.
Tennis Integrity Unit head Nigel Willerton said authorities had drawn a line under the evidence uncovered, because lawyers had advised that a new integrity code introduced in the wake of the 2008 investigation could not be enforced retrospectively.
“As a result, no new investigations into any of the players who were mentioned in the 2008 report were opened,” Willerton said.
Posted 18 Jan 201618 Jan 2016, updated 18 Jan 201618 Jan 2016
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