Roger Federer claims all match-fixing allegations must be taken “super seriously” by the tennis authorities, and has urged investigators to reveal names and evidence.
The 17-time major champion, who served as president of the ATP Player Council for six years, believes the allegations made in a report published by the BBC and BuzzFeed could put pressure on the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) – a joint initiative of the ITF, ATP, WTA and Grand Slam Board formed in 2008 to enforce the sport’s zero tolerance policy towards gamblingrelated corruption – to work harder on keeping tennis clean
Federer however questioned the lack of detail in the article and says without names and evidence, it is merely speculation. The report claims that “over the last decade, 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the TIU over suspicions they have thrown matches” adding that more than half of them are playing in the Australian Open this fortnight.
“All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing,” said the report.
Only Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello – both now retired – were mentioned by name in the article, referring to an old investigation dating back to 2007, but the report did not reveal any names of the current players under suspicion as it claims it is not possible to determine whether they were personally taking part in match-fixing.
“I heard old names being dropped. That story was checked out. Clearly you got to take it super serious, like they did back in the day. Since we have the Integrity Unit, it puts more pressure on them that a story like this broke again,” Federer told reporters on Monday in Melbourne after his Australian Open first round win over Nikoloz Basilashvili.
“I hadn’t been approached. Doesn’t matter whether I’ve been approached or not, I haven’t…
“Clearly for a few years now we know this is very serious. Got to do everything about it to keep the sport clean. It’s vital, there’s no doubt about it.”