Melbourne, Jan 19 (IANS) Tennis Australia’s CEO and Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley on Tuesday joined the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) and the other world tennis authorities in rejecting media suggestions that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed.
An investigation into tennis match fixing by two prominent media organisations has revealed evidence that 16 professional players have been caught in the scandal.
The findings of the investigation, by BuzzFeed News and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), were revealed on Monday as 2016’s first Major, the Australian Open, began at Melbourne Park.
A US Open champion and doubles winners at Wimbledon were among a core group of 16 players who had continually been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets were placed against them.
“We have built an international reputation for the integrity of the tournament and the anti-corruption systems we have in place,” Tiley said in a statement.
“In conjunction with world tennis we have developed leading anti-doping, disciplinary, anti-corruption and security policies. All involved in the administration of the Australian Open will not tolerate any deviations from our values and rules at any level.”
Authors of the report devised an algorithm to analyse gambling patterns on professional tennis matches over the past seven years. The investigation uncovered a bundle of leaked internal documents and analysis of betting on 26,000 tennis matches.
Tiley added that Tennis Australia is committed to root out all evil practices from the sport.
“Of course the deliberate timing of this story is far from ideal for our event. But the important issue here is that we stamp out any form of corruption in tennis. That’s why, many years ago, Tennis Australia pushed hard for an all-sport response to this issue. Stamping out any form of corruption requires a continued focus on prevention, education and investigation.”