Former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) boss Richard Ings has tweeted that no sport is easier to fix than tennis as it takes only one player to fix a match.
With match-fixing again surfacing in Australia, six men were questioned in Melbourne by police and the Purana detectives charged a Brighton man with two counts of match-fixing related to betting on matches there and overseas, with ongoing investigations into the activities of several others.
Five men were released pending further investigation into the activities of a betting syndicate focusing on tennis, which has long been considered susceptible to corruption, News.com.au reported.
An Englishman was arrested courtside during the Australian Open with a concealed electronic device used to send live score updates to a betting agency in Britain, although charges against him were dropped in March.
The current investigation does not focus on ATP Tour or Australian Open matches, but on the lower rungs of the tour, where professionals face a battle to break even, let alone make a living, making them vulnerable to match fixers.
As anti-doping expert Ings, who strengthened the ATP's integrity unit before heading up ASADA, tweeted no sport is more susceptible to match-fixing than tennis as there is endless opportunity.
John McEnroe had voiced similar concerns while competing in an event in Adelaide last year when he criticised a penalty levelled against a female Russian player who failed to report an approach to authorities.
McEnroe had said that tennis is a sport where one has only two people performing and it would probably be easier for someone to get one person rather than 10 people if one is playing a cricket match or soccer game or something.
