THE match-fixing scandal that has engulfed the tennis world during this Australian Open should come as no surprise.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The increasingly pervasive influence of gambling on the sporting landscape means no professional athletic pursuit will remain untouched.
Cricket, soccer, boxing, baseball and countless other sports have already had their standings damaged by high-profile instances of rigging.
Now it is the turn of tennis – whose reputation has largely emerged untarnished during an era of wide-spread doping controversies – to grapple with the problem.
Tennis, by it’s very nature as predominantly a one-on-one contest, would appear particularly vulnerable to match-fixing.
The odds of a crook succeeding in influencing the outcome of a match are much higher if 50 per cent of the combatants are in your pocket, compared with, say, one player among 22 on the cricket field.
All it takes is a player on the take to manufacture an inopportune double fault or unforced error to change a game, set or match.
The other great advantage, from a match-fixer’s perspective, tennis has over rival sports is that while the top players can earn millions of dollars a year, for the majority it is far from a lucrative profession.
Travel, accommodation, equipment and coaches all quickly eat away at the relatively meagre prize money on offer in the lower-tier events.
What is particularly concerning about the results of the joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and the BBC is not that match-fixing occurs in tennis – that has been an open secret for decades – but that it appears to have engulfed the upper echelon of the professional game.
By following the money wagered on some 26,000 matches, there are now suspicions over many top 50 players, including grand slam champions.
The investigation has also exposed that it is the betting companies, so often blamed for their part in corrupting the contest, are more proactive in attempting to stamp out match-fixing than the sport’s governing bodies.
On January 31, a player will stand on centre court and hoist the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup.
But what confidence can we have that the result was not preordained?
- Ross Tyson, deputy editor