With stars such as Lleyton Hewitt indiscriminately caught up in the fallout from the BBC-BuzzFeed investigation into fixing,experts raise concerns over how the analysis was carried outTen days have passed since BuzzFeed and the BBC detonated a 9000-word report alleging “widespread” match-fixing “in the upper echelons” of men’s tennis, and the suspicions and insinuations continue to linger like a stink bomb.
During the Australian Open Lleyton Hewitt, or one of the game’s most tenacious and admired scrappers,was forced to deny he was a secret cheat after the final moments of his 19-year singles’ career. The Dutch player Robin Hasse was accused of corruption on Twitter based on no evidence. And a mixed doubles match on Sunday was also called into question by the bookmakers Pinnacle although others disputed whether there were suspicious betting patterns. Meanwhile the public is left wondering just who – or what – it can believe. As the ATP chairman Chris Kermode set it when an independent review into tennis’s anti-corruption practices was announced in Australia: “We are in a toxic environment for sport at the moment.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com