I was asked to fix match, reveals Brit

BRITAIN’S former US Open junior champion Oliver Golding has revealed he was once offered

t2,000 to fix a tennis match. Golding, now 24, reported the incident — which happened nearly four years ago — but said a lack of support from the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) would make him think twice about doing so again. ‘You hear about these sort of things happening and you’re aware it is a problem but it wasn’t a situation I’d found myself in before,’ Golding told ITN News. The incident occurred at an obscure, bottom-level Futures event in Greece offering a total purse of $10,000. Greek player Alexandros Jakupovic suggested that Golding could lose the first set and then go on to win the match. In the event he won 6-3, 6-2. Golding was summoned to a hearing when Jakupovic’s activities were exposed — he was later found guilty of five offences and banned for life — but Golding does not feel he was given sufficient back-up. ‘I’ve never been questioned by lawyers in my life,’ he said. ‘I almost felt a little bit guilty for reporting him. There is a problem in tennis and it does need to be stamped out, so I’m sure I did the right thing but it is a tough process to go through. If it happened again it would be in the back of my mind, “God, I’ve got to go through this again”.’ But a TIU spokesman said: ‘The investigator involved believes she made every effort to keep in contact with the witness and provide support.’ The TIU has expanded in the last four years as tennis attempts to keep up with the explosion of online betting that has made the lower tiers of the circuit vulnerable to corruption. The problem will be addressed by an inquiry into match-fixing ordered last year and due to publish its findings at the end of the season.