What a Djok!
Novak says match-throwing claims are ‘not true’
NOVAK Djokovic defeated French teen Quentin Halys to advance to the third round of the Australian Open Wednesday — and then he blasted a report in an Italian newspaper that claimed he had thrown a match at the Paris Masters in 2007.
“It’s not true,” the world’s No. 1 men’s singles player said after he was peppered with questions by journalists about the report in Tuttosport during a tense late-night press conference.
The newspaper, citing documents from a prosecutors’ investigation into match fixing, reported that Djokovic “voluntarily lost” the match against France’s Fabrice Santoro. Djokovic was 20 years old and ranked No. 3 in the world at that time. Santoro, who has since retired, was 39 years old and ranked 39th in the world. Tuttosport did not make the documents public or provide any other supporting evidence.
The report comes just days after BuzzFeed and the BBC reported that 16 players were suspected of intentionally throwing matches on behalf of gambling syndicates in Russia, Sicily and northern Italy since the creation of the Tennis Integrity Unit, founded in 2008 to police the sport. The report claimed tennis authorities have ignored allegations of match fixing, a charge officials from the ATP and other organizations have denied.
Djokovic told reporters in Australia earlier this week that he had been offered $200,000 to throw a 2007 match at a tournament in St. Petersburg. He said the offer was made to a member of his support team.
Djokovic said the match against Santoro stood out in his mind because he had his wisdom teeth extracted before the tournament and did not feel 100%.
“What it is to say? I’ve lost that match,” Djokovic said. “I don’t know if you’re trying to create a story about that match or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds, I think it’s just absurd.
“Anybody can create a story about any match,” he added. “That’s my point.”