More than 50% of Dutch tennis players have been asked to participate in match fixing according to an investigation conducted by newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
The investigation spoke with 14 out of 16 Dutch players ranked in the world’s top-1000. Over half of the group admitted that have been approached by match fixers at some point in their career. Furthermore, 79% (11/14) of players said that they believe that bribery happens in the sport.
One of the players that participated in the investigation was Paul Monteban, a 23-year-old player with a doubles ranking best of 777th in the world. Speaking about the threat of match-fixing, Monteban said that players are tempted to participate in corruption due to financial problems.
“For some players, it is a tempting choice: will I win a doubles tournament for dozens or several hundreds of euros or sell a match for 5000 euros?” Monteban said.
The investigation has also cast doubt on a match involving world No.99 Thiemo de Bakker. The Dutch Tennis Federation (KNLTB) has confirmed to local media that they labelled a matched between Bakker and France’s Gianni Mina as ‘suspicious’. According to records, the only match involving the two men occurred in 2014 at an Argentine Challenger tournament. Bakker was the seventh seed in the tournament but lost 6-3, 6-4, to Mina in the first round.
The match involving Bakker is one of three matches involving Dutch players that the KNLTB has raised concerns about. All three cases have been passed on to the Tennis integrity Unit (TIU).
Bakker has denied any wrongdoing and has protested his innocence.
Early this year, an investigation by the BBC and Buzzfeed News alleged that the TIU has been told about numerous cases of match fixing in recent years. On the eve on the Australian Open it was alleged that eight suspected match fixers played in the tournament.
In wake of the report, players in both the men’s and women’s tour dismissed the report and argued that their sport is not corrupt. On the other hand, tennis officials launched an independent review into the effectiveness of the TIU in January.
