Loki Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Yeah this article isn't a surprise. As blue said tennis doesn't want to investigate anything fully. Would you speculate on any of the players blue? I have seen davydenko, fognini and Cilic all lose convincingly from strong winning positions. Andre Agassi took a silent ban many years ago. Gasquet was let off for cocaine etc etc. If a big name was found to have used performance enhancing substances the sport of tennis would be in ruins. The amount of money the ATP events generate is huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue4578 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 I speak to a couple of guys who I've met through the Betfair VIP events, who travel to tournaments sometimes and speak to the trainers and hitting partners. It seems fixing is a lot more common in the men's game than the women's. Nationality plays a part, with players for Russia, Argentina, Italy and a few Eastern European countries arousing most of the suspicion. I would even go as far as to say that the majority of players from Russia and the former Soviet Union who have been ranked in the top 150 in the past 10 years have been strongly implicated in match fixing. I have spoken at length to people at Betfair who have told me about new accounts opening up in Russia and placing £100,000 bets on Russian players to lose. Even some players who got banned, got the decisions reversed: http://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/12110/10025127/potito-starace-and-daniele-bracciali-have-life-bans-lifted Starace is a higher profile player than most who have been suspended. There have been numerous instances of people being banned (always lower ranked players) for betting a few Euros on a match they weren't playing in. As far as PEDs, I am convinced that two male grand slam champions of recent years are as guilty as any of the Russian athletes currently caught up in the IAAF scandal. I believe that the ATP and ITF are probably almost as guilty as the IAAF for covering it up too. To avoid the small chance of being sued for libel, you'll have to work out who it is yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrmad Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 A story has just gone up on the BBC Sport website about match fixing in tennis, including matches at Wimbledon: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/35319202 I'm glad the spotlight that has been shone on various other sports / governing bodies is now shining on tennis, as there is so much potential for corruption and doping cover-ups to take place within the ITF. Hopefully this investigation is just the starting point when it comes to exposing a lot of that stuff. Judging by the locations of the betting syndicates mentioned in the article, looks like there must have been some Mafia involvement. Any guesses as to what players may be implicated in this? Davydenko is a certainty in my opinion. Watched an ITF game where it was 1 set all and player A was down 2-1 on serve having failed to convert numerous break points in the previous game, player A proceeded to spray balls all over the place for the remainder of the match, if he wasn't throwing the match then I don't know what he was doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrmad Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Stan's figures for throwing away breaks is shocking for such a talented player(wouldn't bet anyone against him on the rare occasion he's in top form). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Tim Henman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Tim Henman. Don't be silly, no need to pay him to lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajwffc Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 It is was mentioned on 5 live by one of the persons involved in the report. 8 of the 16 players are playing at this years Australian open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue4578 Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 You could easily name 8 players in the draw almost certainly involved in match fixing. Incidentally it doesn't always involve losing the match (or retiring after the first set is complete so bets stand with Betfair and a lot of bookmakers), but there is a player who has a reputation for losing the first set on purpose repeatedly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/35356550 The latest quote on the BBC sums it up well. If the ATP suggest it either hasn't been going on on a large scale or they didn't know about it, then you might as well put Sepp Blatter or Lamine Diack in charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
die hard doonhamer Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Not surprising at all. I'm convinced that Novak is on some sort of PEDs, his transformation since changing his "diet" doesn't sit right with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Lambies Doos Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Not surprising at all. I'm convinced that Novak is on some sort of PEDs, his transformation since changing his "diet" doesn't sit right with me. That would certainly be my opinion also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamonds are Forever Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 You could easily name 8 players in the draw almost certainly involved in match fixing. Incidentally it doesn't always involve losing the match (or retiring after the first set is complete so bets stand with Betfair and a lot of bookmakers), but there is a player who has a reputation for losing the first set on purpose repeatedly. That was my thoughts when I saw it was about throwing matches. Given you can bet on the winner of every point of every match it seems a bit needless for someone to throw a whole match. Although I assume in the smaller markets strange betting patterns are more identifiable. I guess the problem with match fixing is it's a lot harder to prove someone has thrown a match, compared to something like PEDs which is more clear cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonofjenova Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Who's the notorious top 50 first set fixer? Have absolutely no idea who it could be, I don't follow tennis closely enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-coo-shed Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Fognini? I presume the implicated US Open champion must be Cilic or Del Potro. Is there any word on who the eight actually are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrmad Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 SET 1 SET 2 SET 3 Seppi A. 41.85 50.00 54.34Bedene A. 42.86 48.57 50.00Bogomolov A. 45.40 47.77 57.38Dimitrov G. 45.97 51.61 57.78Fognini F. 42.37 47.12 51.06Goffin D. 44.84 49.30 55.56Martin A. 38.46 44.62 52.50Montanes A. 50.68 54.30 65.85Nishikori K. 54.47 60.31 79.12Paire B. 41.51 54.09 53.13Struff J.L. 27.45 39.22 55.00Troicki V. 47.81 52.53 57.78 Some %'s to win sets in 3 set matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Fognini? I presume the implicated US Open champion must be Cilic or Del Potro. Is there any word on who the eight actually are? I saw a (supposed) tweet from the BBC saying that the US Open champion is a doubles player. As for the list: http://showlegend.tumblr.com/post/137644525409/the-buzzfeed-15-exposed Lleyton Hewitt Mostly everyone else on that list seems totally plausible, but Hewitt has probably just been unlucky. From what I've read, the guy from Buzzfeed who wrote the article doesn't actually know much about tennis betting and came to his conclusions based exclusively on an algorithm. The most likely scenario is that Hewitt, due to a mixture of age and his injury history, has somehow met the odds criteria from which this guy has concluded you must be match fixing. To further the comment about this "journalist" not knowing about tennis betting, another thing about these findings is that they don't take into account in-play statistics, which is why plenty of other names who should be on this list are missing. Not doing any analysis of in-play odds movements in this sort of investigation is, let's be honest, amateur as f**k. I'm sure that a good percentage of that list really are serial match-fixers. Guys like Golubev, Tipsarevic and Chela are the exact sort I'd have expected. But it almost certainly goes a lot deeper than these findings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-coo-shed Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 I saw a (supposed) tweet from the BBC saying that the US Open champion is a doubles player. As for the list: http://showlegend.tumblr.com/post/137644525409/the-buzzfeed-15-exposed Lleyton Hewitt Mostly everyone else on that list seems totally plausible, but Hewitt has probably just been unlucky. From what I've read, the guy from Buzzfeed who wrote the article doesn't actually know much about tennis betting and came to his conclusions based exclusively on an algorithm. The most likely scenario is that Hewitt, due to a mixture of age and his injury history, has somehow met the odds criteria from which this guy has concluded you must be match fixing. To further the comment about this "journalist" not knowing about tennis betting, another thing about these findings is that they don't take into account in-play statistics, which is why plenty of other names who should be on this list are missing. Not doing any analysis of in-play odds movements in this sort of investigation is, let's be honest, amateur as f**k. I'm sure that a good percentage of that list really are serial match-fixers. Guys like Golubev, Tipsarevic and Chela are the exact sort I'd have expected. But it almost certainly goes a lot deeper than these findings. I thought Fognini must have been on that list! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheScarf Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 I think Novak is fair game. He clearly loves the sport and has made efforts to rid his body of Gluten which appears to have given him more energy and stamina. He was already a great champion before this change, already having the 2008 AO, the 2008 WTF and a handful of Masters under his belt. The top 4 are all fine regarding taking bungs IMO, along with guys like Wawrinka, Cilic, Nishikori, Berdych. As someone said above, these guys don't need to make 50k here and there to throw a match, its the guys who consistently are papped out by these guys in rounds 2 and 3 that are far more likely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 One of the matches getting investigated was Djokovic vs Sontoro from 2007. As nightmare said there isn't a chance Hewitt is involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiegoDiego Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I think Novak is fair game. He clearly loves the sport and has made efforts to rid his body of Gluten which appears to have given him more energy and stamina. I would be very wary accepting that chat at face value. If you'd just started a new drug regime and people were asking questions you'd want a cover story, and what better than to piggyback onto the gluten bandwagon. The poppycock that Djokovic is coming out with is wack on a whole new level Dr. Cetojevic persuaded the tennis star to give up gluten by administering a simple test: He told Djokovic to put his left hand on his stomach, hold out his right arm and resist as the doctor pulled down on his arm. Then Dr. Cetojevic gave Djokovic a slice of bread and told him to hold that against his stomach and repeated the test, there was a noticeable difference." Djokovic's has either been completely taken in by semi-fraudulent "diagnostic" techniques from snake oil salesmen, or is using the gluten shtick as cover for PED intake. I hope it's the latter as I'd actually have more respect for him that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killie_lad Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I would be very wary accepting that chat at face value. If you'd just started a new drug regime and people were asking questions you'd want a cover story, and what better than to piggyback onto the gluten bandwagon. The poppycock that Djokovic is coming out with is wack on a whole new level Djokovic's has either been completely taken in by semi-fraudulent "diagnostic" techniques from snake oil salesmen, or is using the gluten shtick as cover for PED intake. I hope it's the latter as I'd actually have more respect for him that way. Hahaha no way. Please tell me Djockovic has fallen for this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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