BuzzFeed and the BBC shocked the sporting world this week, reporting match-fixing was rampant throughout professional tennis by many players, including winners of Grand Slam tournaments.
Many current players shared their disgust for the reports. The No. 1 ranked player in the world, Novak Djokovic shared his own story about how he was offered $200,000 to lose a match back in 2007.
“Of course, we threw it away right away,” Djokovic said. “It didn’t even get to me, the guy that was trying to talk to me, he didn’t even get to me directly. There was nothing out of it.”
Djokovic said he didn’t think there was match-fixing at the top level of tennis, but stated there was no room for corruption.
Now it seems the 28-year-old is facing speculation he could be involved.
Italian newspapers have made allegations that Djokovic wanted to lose a match at the Paris Masters in 2007, where he lost 6-3 6-2 to France’s Fabrice Santoro, who ranked 36 places below him. Djokovic told the BBC that the claims are hogwash.
“You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost and just create a story out of it,” he said.
“I think it’s not supported by any kind of proof, any evidence, any facts. It’s just speculation, so I don’t think there is a story about it.”
Djokovic says he simply lost a match, and that there was nothing fishy or corrupt about it.
“I don’t know if you’re trying to create a story about that match, or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds. I think it’s just absurd.”
This certainly creates a slippery slope when examining past matches. Even the world’s best athletes have bad days, so to look at a bad loss and assume the match was thrown is unfair. Tossing around unfounded allegations is dangerous, but the alleged corruption means everything needs to be reexamined. So names like Djokovic’s may get unfairly dragged through the mud.
In the meantime, maybe more attention for this match-fixing scandal should be focused on tennis executives, as allegations also come out about officials possibly turning a blind eye to evidence. That same BBC report mentions a police detective who claims that authorities neglected to act on “extremely damning evidence” toward one player suspected of match-fixing.
[BBC]