Several tennis players have expressed concerns about match-fixing at the lower levels of the game, according to a recent report by *USA Today*.
"I think it's illegal and I think it is ruining the reputation of our sport," said Novak Djokovic to the newspaper, which mentioned that the Serb received was approached about fixing a match in 2006. "We don't have any room for that. But the reality is different."
Mike Bryan estimated that 25 to 30 percent of players had been approached, telling the publication, "When you're playing a Challenger-level or a small tournament and are offered $50,000 and you're a journeyman, what do you do?"
The president of the ATP Player Council, doubles player Eric Butorac, also said he had received an approach and reported it to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), which is responsible for anti-corruption efforts within the sport. "The money that we're playing for isn't high enough," he said of the smaller Challenger and Futures events.
The remarks follow an investigation by Italian authorities this year into match-fixing in soccer, which also linked Italian tennis players Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace to match-fixing. Records of internet conversations from 2007 showed Bracciali speaking to a figure who would be arrested for match-fixing in Italy in 2011; the bookmaker was heard in another conversation in 2011 saying that Starace had arranged that he would lose in the Casablanca final.
In conversations published by La Gazzetta dello Sport, translated by TennisWorldUSA.org, Bracciali is asked to go up a set and a break before letting his opponent win—for which he would be given more—and says, "If I knew him I could do it, but in this case I can not."
Asked for amounts further in the conversation, he says, "usually they offer us 50 [thousand]." Then follows a discussion of Bracciali either winning the first set or going down in two sets, to which he says, "this time I'm going to play a normal game,” but offers to meet when he gets home again.
An AP story in November reported that Bracciali had admitted some of the charges to an Italian tribunal. "He admitted a few things and he denied a few things," investigator Roberto Di Martino told the agency.
In an independent investigation, an Australian former tennis player named Nick Lindahl was convicted and fined for tanking a match, and tennis player Matthew Fox was also convicted of gambling offenses.
The TIU has sanctioned 11 players and those involved in tennis for gambling or match-fixing, including a French federation official a month ago. The TIU does not comment on ongoing investigations.