Andy: Ask the tough questions

ANDY MURRAY last night expressed sympathy for fellow professionals innocently associated with tennis matches that have come under suspicion. But he feels that naming possible parties involved and insisting on greater transparency is a price that may have to be paid to convince the wider public of the sport’s integrity. Murray, speaking after he made the third round of the Australian Open, said he felt for world No 1 Novak Djokovic, who on Wednesday was forced to dismiss a story in an Italian newspaper about a match he lost in Paris more than eight years ago. Djokovic rejected as ‘absurd’ any suggestion that his loss to Fabrice Santoro in the 2007 Paris Masters was down to anything more than the debilitating effects of having had wisdom-teeth surgery. Murray said: ‘For anyone who is innocent, whose name gets talked about with that stuff, then you feel sorry for them if they have done nothing wrong. ‘Especially during an event like this, it’s very distracting. But you also want to be competing in a clean sport. So sometimes asking questions, and the players being open about it and responding to it, and the people who are high up in the game talking about it, is also a good thing. ‘If it’s never discussed and nobody ever hears a thing about it, I don’t think that’s good either. Maybe some people see it as a negative for the sport. I think some positives can come from it as well, providing the appropriate people act in the right way.’ Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, who has been baselessly linked to fixing, said: ‘It’s a joke. There’s no way. If anyone tries to go any further with it, then good luck.’