Djokovic plays down fixing in tennis

Novak Djokovic says match-fixing is not prevalent at the top level of tennis, as allegations of corruption overshadow the start of the Australian Open.

The world number one, who says he rejected £110,000 to lose a match early in his career, says there is “no real proof” of fixing among the elite.

“It’s just speculation,” said the Serb 10-time Grand Slam champion.

The BBC and BuzzFeed News have obtained secret files that contain evidence of suspected match-fixing in tennis.

Those files indicate that, over the past decade, 16 players who have been ranked in the world’s top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) over suspicions they have thrown matches.

All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.

Chris Kermode, head of the Association of Tennis Professionals, has rejected claims that evidence of match-fixing had “been suppressed for any reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated”.

But he added: “While the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information.”

UK Government minister John Whittingdale has told the BBC that tennis should “learn from the mistakes of other sports” and take prompt action.

He said that “past allegations of this kind” against athletics and football were seemingly “swept under the carpet”.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport added: “These are serious allegations and they need to be looked into very quickly.”

It is alleged that, in 2007, tennis authorities were presented with an examination of 26,000 matches, three of them at Wimbledon, which contained enough evidence to root out offenders.

However, no action was taken.

“From my knowledge and information about match-fixing, there is nothing happening at the top level, as far as I know,” added Djokovic.

“At challenger level, maybe, maybe not. But I’m not entitled to really talk about it. I can give my opinion.

“But there is an organisation, authorities, people who take care of that on a daily basis and make sure to track it down.”

Djokovic had already revealed he had been approached to lose a first-round match at the St Petersburg Open in 2007.

“I was approached through people working with me,” he said. “Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn’t even get to me, there was nothing out of it.”

A number of players competing at the Australian Open in Melbourne have been responding to the revelations.

World number one Serena Williams said that if match-fixing was taking place, then she “didn’t know about it”.

The American added: “When I’m playing, I can only answer for me, I play very hard, and every player I play seems to play hard.”

Williams began the defence of her Australian Open title with a 6-4 7-5 win over Italy’s Camila Giorgi.

Djokovic, who is the reigning men’s champion, started with a 6-3 6-2 6-4 defeat of South Korea’s Chung Hyeon.

BBC Sport – Tennis

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