Alexandr Dolgopolov has publicly criticised the media regarding their coverage of an ongoing investigation into one of his matches relating to irregular betting patterns.
Moments after his first round win over Jan-Lennard Struff at the US Open, he reacted angrily when asked about the subject. Earlier this month the Tennis Integrity Unit confirmed that they were investigating a match at the Winston-Salem Open involving Dolgopolov. The inquiry was launched after the match was flagged up by bookmakers from suspicious betting patterns.
“The Tennis Integrity Unit was made aware of concerns over betting patterns during the match between Alexandr Dolgopolov and Thiago Monteiro at the ATP World Tour event in Winston-Salem, USA, yesterday (Sunday, August 20),” read the TIU statement.
“As with all match alerts, the TIU will assess, make a judgement and take appropriate action on the information received through its co-operative agreements with betting operators.”
Speaking about the investigation for the first time, the 28-year-old reacted angrily to the journalists during his press conference. He has accused some reporters of writing ‘fairytales’ about the incident. Dolgopolov has never been found guilty of any match-fixing offences to date.
“You want my honest answer? I don’t give a fuck to be honest, because it’s like a circus.” He said in New York.
“I think I should be asking you guys how you feel about your fellow journalists writing about maybe there’s a fix in the match because there is a market. I read the article. It was like the statistics of my break points. Are you serious? You are going now to the statistics and saying it might be fixed because there is a market? Are you writing news or fairytales? I go on social media and every time I have to delete 10 messages because people are doing threats, stuff to the family.”
Dolgopolov then insisted that he has never been involved in match fixing before confirming that he has already spoken with the TIU. A organisation that he publicly praised.
“I don’t want to even talk about it. I talked to the TIU. I respect their work. I gave all the information needed. At the end of the day, what’s going to happen is I’m not involved in anything.”
Why was Dolgopolov suspected?
Shortly before the start of the suspected match, betting analysts identified a sudden change in odds. Sportdw.com highlighted that 15 minutes before the start, Dolgopolov could have been backed at a price of 3.15, implying a 31.7% chance of winning. On the Saturday before the Ukrainian was a 1.36 favourite, indicating there he had a 73.5% chance of winning.
Dolgopolov’s price on Betfair… pic.twitter.com/nZbiFcQXDc
— jimmy soixante-dix (@hotdog6969) 20 August 2017
During his match against Monteiro, a player ranked 51 places lower than him, Dolgopolov failed to generate a single break point opportunity and only won 45% of his second service points. A performance the Ukrainian has put it down to ‘tiredness.’
“I was giving my best effort. I wasn’t playing my best. I was doing a lot of practice before [arriving at Flushing Meadows] because I wasn’t feeling good against [Nick] Kyrgios in Cincinnati. I was physically weak. I blacked out in that match. I wasn’t happy with my physical condition and I knew by New York I needed to get some work done. Obviously you want to be ready for the US Open at the tournament before. I was working hard and playing [despite] tiredness.”
Dolgopolov will play Tomas Berdych in the second round of the US Open.
