Australian Open: Fuming Djokovic denies ‘absurd’ match-fixing claim

Novak Djokovic has angrily denied any wrongdoing after being dragged into match-fixing allegations.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia hits a forehand return to Quentin Halys of France during their second round match at the Australian Open.

Novak Djokovic, the world No 1 tennis player, has angrily denied any wrongdoing after being dragged into match-fixing allegations emerging from an Italian investigation.

“It’s not true,” Djokovic said at the Australian Open yesterday when asked about claims in an Italian newspaper that he deliberately lost a match in 2007. “It’s not supported by any proof, any evidence, any facts. It’s just speculation. You don’t want these kind of subjects or speculation going around.”

Rumours have swirled this week about match-fixing in tennis after it was reported on Monday that the game’s authorities had ignored evidence they collected about fraud by top players.

No players were named in the reports by the BBC and Buzzfeed, but yesterday Roberto Di Martino, an Italian magistrate, told The Times that he had passed to the tennis integrity unit last year an unsubstantiated allegation about Djokovic having deliberately lost a match.

Djokovic was reportedly in pain after having two wisdom teeth removed before the match, a second-round meeting with the Frenchman Fabrice Santoro at the BNP Paribas Masters at the Palais de Omnisports Bercy in Paris. If he had not played he would have missed out on a bonus for appearing in the final Masters series tour event of that year. “I lost that match,” he said yesterday. “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.”

Djokovic admitted earlier this week that he had been indirectly offered — and refused — $200,000 to throw a match in 2007 at the St Petersburg Open in Russia.

The investigation run by Mr Di Martino allegedly discovered evidence that players — not including Djokovic — were receiving 50,000 euros to throw matches and referred to fixed games as “cream” in Skype chats.

The inquiry, which ended on December 11, grew out of an investigation into football betting that centred on Manlio Bruni, an Italian accountant. Analysing Mr Bruni’s computer, Mr Di Martino said that he saw evidence that he was also involved in fixing tennis matches between 2007 and 2011.

Documents from the investigation published by the Italian news agency Ansa said that two Italian players, Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace, as well as the Swedish player Tomas Nydahl, were are under formal investigation by Mr Di Martino. Both Italian players were banned for life last year for match fixing, but their bans were later suspended.

The magistrate found a message from Mr Nydahl claiming that he was told that Djokovic planned to lose the 2007 game. However, Mr Di Martino said: “The evidence is vague and concerns events overseas that happened in the past that I cannot investigate. Maybe Djokovic lost because he simply lost.”

Numerous players have apparently intentionally lost matches for a variety of reasons without doing so for financial gain. At the age of 17, Roger Federer was fined $100 for “tanking” — not using his best effort — in a tournament in the Swiss town of Kublis, after serving several double faults.

Mr Di Martino said that he handed over his evidence to the integrity unit last year, adding that evidence reported by the BBC was based partly on his findings. Referring to a match in Hamburg in 2007 between Italian Filippo Volandri and Andy Murray, where the British No 1 retired with a hurt wrist, the investigative documents quoted by Ansa said: “The Italian had decided to lose, but because of an injury to the Scot, who pulled out, (Volandri) lost the bet.” Volandri’s name featured prominently in a list of matches under suspicion for corruption compiled in 2008 by the ATP World Tour.

Mr Di Martino said that bets were adjusted during matches, so if a player won the first set before deliberately losing the last two, a bet placed after the first set on him losing the match would pay better. “The ATP classification of players should consider the number of sets won and lost,” he said. “That might stop players being prepared to let their opponents win the first set.”

Barry Flatman contributed to this report

The Times