Monday, 18 January 2016

Djokovic offered $200,000 to fix tennis match


Novak Djokovic has claimed he was offered roughly $200,000 to lose a first-round match at a tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2007.
Djokovic, who disclosed this at a press conference at the Australian Open, said he wasn't approached directly. 
"I was approached through people that were working with me at that time," he said, and made it clear that the offer was rejected. He added that he didn't even attend the tournament.
Djokovic went on to voice his displeasure at the offer saying, "It made me feel terrible because I don't want to be anyhow linked to this kind of -- you know, somebody may call it an opportunity."
 "For me, that's an act of unsportsmanship, a crime in sport honestly. I don't support it. I think there is no room for it in any sport, especially in tennis," he added.

A report by BuzzFeed/BBC said there has been widespread match-fixing in men's tennis and that authorities in the sport have ignored it. The report, however, refused to name the players involved because it could not prove a direct connection to betting. But, it stated  there is a group of 16 suspected men who have been ranked in the top 50 involved and the group involved a US Open champion.

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