Privately organized tennis tournaments staged during the lockdown of professional tennis between April and June resulted in 24 suspicious matches being reported to the TIU by regulated betting operators,\u201d<\/strong> said the organization in a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTIU did not identify at which tournaments the alleged match corruption took place.<\/p>\n
Road Map Jaundiced by Greed<\/h2>\n On March 18, the ATP and WTA temporarily shut down their 2020 seasons, and there were multiple postponements as to when the tours would return. Along the way, Wimbledon was canceled, marking the first time since World War II the Grand Slam event held at the All England Club was scrapped.<\/p>\n
With murky visibility as to when competitive tennis will return, some players and others involved with the sport took it upon themselves to organize tournaments and matches. Some even included high-profile stars. For example, 17-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic was behind the Adria Tour, However, he and four others associated with that effort contracted COVID-19.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe idea behind the \u201cmini tours\u201d and non-competitive matches was simple enough: provide an avenue for athletes to remain sharp while potentially delivering a template to the ATP and WTA as to how the tours can restart in August after being on the sidelines for several months.<\/p>\n
\n
However, many of the events were small-scale, not attracting names such as Djokovic or Roger Federer. That led to speculation that anonymous events chock full of unheralded players could be fertile ground for match-fixers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There’s something to that line of thinking. Prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, TIU fielded an unusually large spike in match corruption claims<\/a>, the bulk of which came from lower-level competitions.<\/p>\nPreparing for the Worst<\/h2>\n While the ATP and WTA tours have been shut down, TIU has been active in preparing for betting shenanigans when the sport resumes. The group is producing \u201cReturn To Tennis\u201d webinars to help the tours deal with \u201cintegrity challenges\u201d when competitive play returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuspicious betting on tennis during the lockdown is seen as a firm indicator that corruptors remain active, and are likely to increase their focus on the sport when professional tennis resumes in August,\u201d<\/strong> said TIU.<\/p>\nWhen it comes to competition corruption, TIU receives alerts from sportsbooks and notes that, while it looks into those notifications, not all turn up evidence of match-fixing.<\/p>\n
Last month, TIU suspended and fined two players and an official for corruption offenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) — the organization that evaluates match-fixing allegations within the sport — is investigating widespread claims of that nefarious deed at various off-tour exhibitions that are popping up in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. As is the case with an array of other sports around the world, the Association of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":141512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Tennis Integrity Unit Looking Into Match Fixing Claims<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n