Tennis No.1 Djokovic says he was offered $150,000 to throw match

The world’s number one tennis player Novak Djokovic says he was offered $150,000 to throw a match early in his career. However, the Serb says there is “no real proof” of match-fixing among the elite of the sport. “From my knowledge and information about match-fixing, there is nothing happening at the top level, as far as I know,” he said. He was speaking after leaked secret files suggested widespread suspected match-fixing exists at the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon. Over the past decade, 16 players ranked in the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the Tennis Integrity Unit, which was set up to police the sport, over suspicions they have thrown matches, the documents show.

I was approached through people working with me. Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn’t even get to me.

Novak Djokovic

All of the players, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing. Eight of the players are due to play in the Australian Open which starts on Monday, according to the files, obtained by the BBC and BuzzFeed News. The cache of documents include the findings of an investigation set up in 2007 by the organising body, the Association of Tennis Professionals. The players have not been named because without access to their phone, bank and computer records it was not possible to determine whether they took part in match-fixing.

All of us here in tennis are absolutely committed to stamp out any form of corrupt conduct in our sport. There is a zero tolerance policy on this. We are not complacent. We are very vigilant.

ATP president Chris Kermode

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