Tennis Australia have announced that they will increase prize money at the lower levels of the game to prevent corruption from happening in next year’s Australian Open.
In the wake of the corruption claims from last year’s edition of the Australian Open, investigated by the BBC and Buzzfeed, Tennis Australia have reacted with drastic measures to help the fight against corruption in Tennis. Other measures include cuts in betting advertisement for the upcoming tournament, they have also hired an intelligence officer and a risk manager.
Tennis Australia president Steve Harley had this to say on their website:
“Although we have no evidence of widespread corruption in Australian tennis, we have recognised that the potential to corrupt is there and as such we have taken extensive steps to safeguard our sport. We made the decision to not just sit back and wait for the IRP (Independent Review Panel) to hand down their findings but to take immediate action. Our sport needs strong measures implemented now and that’s exactly what we are doing. We have committed significant funds and resources into strengthening our position now so that we don’t look back in five years and think we could have done more.”
Analysis
This statement sends out a strong message to the world of sport that they will take action against corruption and make it more aware in sport. Considering last year’s allegations of a mixed doubles match being match-fixed, it is the appropriate and suitable action to take against the problem. Hopefully this will make players aware that they cannot get away with corrupting tennis matches anymore. Tennis Australia will hope this method against corruption will be successful when the tournament kicks off in six weeks time in Melbourne.
