Well, now we know: it seems that some of the matches, including those at Wimbledon, are fixed.
The BBC and the website Buzzfeed yesterday published the results of a year-long investigation into match fixing in tennis.
The results have taken fans completely by surprise: horse racing has long been considered a suspect sport, as has soccer, but tennis? Surely not.
The BBC says tennis officials have known for years about betting on suspect matches, and yet never acted.
“Over the last decade, sixteen players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly (been suspected of having) thrown matches,” the report says.
“All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.”
Chris Kermode, who heads the Association of Tennis Professionals, rejected the report, saying the allegations were ten years old and that it takes corruption seriously.
The BBC says betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily “are making hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on matches investigators thought to be fixed. Three of these matches were at Wimbledon.”
The news rocked the Australian Open, which started in Melbourne this week, especially after world number one Novak Djokovic revealed that he had been approached to fix a tennis match when he was a teenager.
“I was not approached directly,” he said, “I was approached through people that were working with me at that time.”
Tennis introduced a new anti-corruption code in 2009 but after taking legal advice were told previous corruption offences could not be pursued.
