It isn’t very often that the ending of a tennis season is celebrated with sighs of relief. Then again, 2016 has been anything but ordinary. From the fiasco surrounding Maria Sharapova’s failed drugs test to the dark world of match-fixing, never before has the sport been caught up in so many scandals within a single season.
The match-fixing revelations
On the eve of the Australian Open, an earthquake erupted in the sport when a joint investigation by the BBC and Buzzfeed News alleged widespread match-fixing. The damning report alleged that the Tennis Integrity Unit was warned seven years ago about a group of 16 players that has been implicit in match-fixing, half of which played at the Australian Open.
The allegations made in the report
- Winners of singles and doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments 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.
- One top-50 player competing in the Australian Open is suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set.
- Players are being targeted in hotel rooms at major tournaments and offered $50,000 or more per fix by corrupt gamblers.
- 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.
- The names of more than 70 players appear on nine leaked lists of suspected fixers who have been flagged up to the tennis authorities over the past decade without being sanctioned.
The names of those players were never revealed and no action was ever taken against them (as far as it is publicly known). Nevertheless, the report caused turmoil and resulted the creation of an independent body in February. The Independent Review Panel was set up to evaluate the integrity in the sport. The heads of the governing bodies (ATP, WTA and ITF) have all pledged to abide by the recommendations of the panel when they are published in 2017.
Besides the highly publicized report, match-fixing investigations has also occurred in numerous countries. In July Italian player Marco Cecchinato received a 18-month ban for match-fixing from the Italian Tennis Federation (his ban was reduced to 12 months following a successful appeal). Meanwhile, in Spain, an undercover investigation by sports website Marca identified widespread corruption in lower level tournaments. On December 1st Spanish authorities arrested 34 people (including six players) in connection with a suspected match-fixing ring in both Spain and Portugal.
The BBC report into match-fixing (January 2016)
