Melbourne : More players revealed match-fixing approaches today as the Australian Open Grand Slam tournament came under close scrutiny following claims that corruption in tennis was widespread.
Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis said he had been targeted through social media, while a British former Davis Cup player said he was once offered an envelope stuffed with cash to throw a match.
According to Australian media, police are also monitoring the first round of the Australian Open, currently under way in Melbourne, for suspicious results.
The latest developments come after the BBC and BuzzFeed, citing leaked documents, said 16 players who have reached the top 50 had repeatedly fallen under suspicion without facing action.
“More than half” of the players, who include singles and doubles Grand Slam champions, are at the Australian Open in Melbourne, according to BuzzFeed.
The controversy is just the latest to hit the sports world after allegations of doping cover-ups rocked athletics and football body FIFA was engulfed by a string of corruption scandals.
On Monday, Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic detailed a $200,000 match-fixing approach earlier in his career surrounding a tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Tennis authorities strongly denied covering up any match-fixing evidence, but they are likely to come under increasing pressure to act against what is a threat to the sport’s integrity.
Courtesy : PTI