L’Equipe the French Sports Media has disclosed that an opening qualifying match for the French Open may be tied to match-fixing.
The French Open is one of the famous tennis events and its reports that some illegal gambling activities may be ongoing underground. The authorities notice that a possible fixing may be ongoing as there’s no distinctive proof yet to ascertain its certainty.
In tennis games, match-fixing is a serious offense with a large number of athletes receiving stiff financial penalties and in many cases lifetime bans for parading the rules and game-fixing.
Games Attracting Unusual Betting and Wagering
The game between Dudi Sela and Bernabe Zapata Miralles got a lot of attention from betting handles last Monday which makes the authorities get involved and began the investigation. The game was won By Miralles with 6-3, 6-0, this appears to be an easy kind of game played for such a famous opening. The Authorities are looking deeply into the second section between the two which was completed in about sixteen (16) minutes and the entire match ended up within an hour.
Although no official investigation is yet to be in progress as L’Equipe said that bookmakers in Armenia, Cyprus, and Ukraine received an exceptional number of wages on this said match and precisely the duration of the event. Miralles is still in the French Open after defeating Luca Nardi last Thursday as Sela has left the tournament already.
As stated, this is not the only game reported with such an incident, another qualifying match between Tennys Sandgren and Thiago Monteiro also draw the attention of the authorities. The game came with 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 on the side of Sandgren winning the tournament.
Cases Of Suspicious Match Fixing Increasing
As it was gathered that more than 42 cases of suspicious betting activities happened in the first quarter. The International Tennis Integrity Association ITIA has been monitoring and preventing fraud in the sport by relieving tennis players and prohibiting them from attending games, engaging in any coaching event, or taking part in various tournaments for a specific period of time until their offense and punishment elapse.
An integrity and data sports company, Sportradar has cautioned that orchestrated criminal personalities are targeting tennis players calmly and converting them by gifting them several rewards money and luxury trips and vacations in exchange for goodwill.
And resisting these fringe benefits has proven hard over the years, but Sportradar, ITIA, and IBIA believe that re-educating and creating awareness for players about the dangers of match-fixing and how it impacts the game and their own careers is the best way to curb the threat that illegal gambling poses to the integrity and Genuity of sport.
