The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) has confirmed that they are ‘reviewing’ a total of four grand slam matches after they were flagged up as potential match-fixing cases.
Out of the four matches, one occurred at Roland Garros and three occurred at Wimbledon. Out of those three at SW19, two of those took place during the qualifying tournament. The names of those players have not been disclosed in the TIU’s quarterly report, but an assessment of the alerts is being conducted.
Between April – June, the TIU was notified of 53 matches that has prompted a ‘match alert.’ Out of those 53, three occurred on the ATP Tour compared to one on the WTA. The biggest alerts surrounds the lower level tournaments on the men’s tour. 40 of the alerts (75%) were from either the Challenger or Futures circuit.
The reported cases were down compared to 12 months ago when the TIU received 73 alerts during the same period. The latest figure represents only 0.169% of total matches played during that period in 2017 (53 out of 31,281).
Match alerts are sent by betting regulators and gambling organisations that have a memorandum with the TIU. These notifications itself are not proof of match-fixing. Alerts can be triggered by other factors such as a player’s fitness, fatigue or form.
Australian player Sam Groth recently revealed that he was approached to fix one of his matches. During an interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, the 29-year-old said he was offered ‘a lot of money’ to throw one of his matches at the Aegon Nottingham Open.
“It was a lot of money, but for me there’s no temptation there, because I’ve played this sport for long enough now and respect it, and I’m not going to throw it all away for a quick earn,” Groth said.
Last year tennis was accused of widespread match-fixing, following a joint investigation by the BBC and Buzzfeed News. It alleged that the governing bodies of the sport failed to stamp out the issue and properly tackle known cases. An allegation that has been firmly denied by the sport.
The TIU will release their next report in early October.
A list of match alerts between April – June 2017
Grand slams – 4
ATP Tour – 3
WTA Tour – 1
ATP Challenger – 20
ITF Futures – 20
ITF Women’s – 5
Hopman, Davis and Fed Cups – 0
