As the eyes of the tennis world focus on Melbourne, where the Australian Open kicked off this morning, the most pressing questions relate to incidents that occurred off the court rather than on it.

If you happened to miss this morning’s story about widespread match-fixing in tennis you’ll need to get up to speed HERE, the lid may have just been lifted on one of modern sport’s dirtiest secrets.

Now world number one Novak Djokovic is speaking out about his experience on the matter and seems keen to downplay the issue. Surprising, considering he had this to say to BBC:

The world number one, who says he rejected £110,000 [R2,6 million at today’s exchange rate] 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…

“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.”

The mere fact that he was approached should set off alarm bells, given that he was earmarked for big things from an early age.

If you consider that he raked in almost $22 million in prize money alone last year it’s no surprise he isn’t approached more often, you’d have to throw around some seriously big numbers.

What is worrying is that an amount like the £110,000 mentioned would still make many heads turn, whether at the elite level or not. Then there’s this, covered in this morning’s story but worth rehashing:

Over the last decade 16 players who have ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the tennis integrity unit over suspicions they have thrown matches.

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

That seems like it may have filtered through to the elite levels doesn’t it Novak?

[source:bbc]