Match-fixing is commonplace in tennis's lower levels and efforts to fight it are inadequate, a senior anti-corruption official told after cheating claims rocked the sport during the Australian Open.
After an explosive report claimed match-fixing was repeatedly going unpunished, Chris Eaton of the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) criticised tennis's "opaque and secretive" anti-corruption body.
Eaton, directory of integrity at the ICSS, said professional betting analysis showed "nil manipulation" of matches at the top levels of tennis, where players are highly paid and less susceptible to bribery.
"However in the second and lower levels, manipulation indicators are heavy and regularly occurring," the former FIFA security chief said via email.
After Novak Djokovic’s second-round win, he was asked about an Italian newspaper report casting doubt over his performance in a match against Fabrice Santoro in 2007.
"What (is there) to sayIJ I've lost that match. I don't know if you're trying to create a story about that match or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds. I think it's just absurd," Djokovic said. "It's not true.
Djokovic lost to Santoro 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the Paris Masters in October 2007. Djokovic, who had two wisdom teeth removed after the Madrid Masters earlier that month, said after the loss to Santoro that he was not fully fit because he was still taking medication.
Retired American player Andy Roddick said a fellow former professional had told him he could probably name "at least 8-9" of the 16 suspected of repeatedly fixing matches.
Eaton said hundreds of thousands of dollars can be made by gamblers using accumulators to bet on the outcomes of multiple matches.
It creates a powerful incentive to fix matches — something which is particularly easy to do in tennis, which has many poorly paid players and where it only takes one bribe to secure the desired outcome. Eaton said tennis was the third most popular sport, behind football and cricket, for betting worldwide "and as a direct consequence it is third in the magnitude of identified suspicious matches".