Most ‘suspicious’ tennis matches take place on lower tier

NEW figures have emerged showing that most tennis matches under suspicion of match-fixing are in the lower reaches of the professional tours.

For the first time it can be clearly illustrated that the threat of corruption exists mainly in the remoter outposts of the men’s game, at Futures events where prize- money is at its lowest.

Sportsmail has gained access to a breakdown of what level matches are played at when an alert for suspicious betting patterns has been flagged up – although that is not proof in itself that corruption has occurred.

According to sources, nearly 50% of alerts last year happened on the men’s Futures tier. By contrast just one Grand Slam match in 2015 came under suspicion. This was not at Wimbledon.

Only 20 percent of suspicious matches came at the highest level of the tours, which suggests the total number was around 14. There are roughly 115 000 matches played at all levels of the pro game every year. – Reuters