Controversy has erupted at the French Open after local law officials confirmed on Tuesday a women’s doubles match is under investigation over potential match-fixing.
The enquiry is focused on a first round match that took place on September 31st. Russia’s Yana Sizikova and American Madison Brengle fell in straight sets to the Romanian duo of Andrea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig. It is one particular game that has alarmed authorities that took place during the fifth game of the second set where Sizikova was serving and got broken to love. It was during that particular moment where betting companies noticed an unusual high amount of money being placed on the match.
At 2-2 Sizikova started and ended with double faults. Between those two points, she also stumbled when trying to retrieve a shot near the baseline. German publication welt.de quoted sources as saying that ‘several hundred thousand euros’ was placed on the match with the focus being on that game. L’Equipe newspaper has also reported the same. It is hard to establish an exact value due to the various betting sites there are.
None of the players involved have spoken out about the incident but the head of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpischev, confirmed that he is currently in contact with both Sizikova and her father. It is unclear as to if they had discussed the investigation between them.
“Until there is information, it makes no sense to talk about something specific,” Tarpischev told newspaper Kommersant.
Alexei Selivanenko, who is the vice-president of the federation, also declined to speak fully on the matter but instead stated that tennis has a ‘zero-tolerance’ when it comes to match-fixing. Selivanenko also serves on the Board of Directors for the International Tennis Federation.
“As long as there are no official documents, it is too early to comment on anything. Tennis has a zero-tolerance policy for cases of this kind,” he told Championat.ru.
The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), which oversees corruption investigations in the sport, confirmed that they are aware of the case but gave no further comment. A standard approach from the organisation who usually doesn’t issue a statement until they have conducted their own investigation. The anti-corruption body said it had received 38 match alerts between January and March in 2020 compared to 21 during the same period 12 months ago.
Under Tennis’ code of conduct, any involvement in match-fixing or failing to report a case that a player knows of can result in a hefty fine and in the worse case scenario a lifetime ban from the sport.
