Publishing its quarterly report, the TIU revealed that one such contest at the recently-concluded tournament attracted suspicion from a betting body and was duly reported.
The TIU has ‘memorandums of understanding’ with a host of bookmakers in a bid to root out match-fixers.
For the period of April to June, there were four alerts reported to the TIU regarding Grand Slam matches. Three were related to Wimbledon – one main-draw match and two in qualifying. It was not specified what the main-draw match was, although the period in question was actually prior to the tournament starting.
There was also one alert from the French Open, although no other details were given regarding this.
Overall, there were 53 alerts received in the second quarter – down from 73 for the same period last year. As has been the trend since the TIU began publishing quarterly reports in 2016, the majority of the alerts came at the lower levels of the game.
Twenty came from the ATP Challenger Tour, the second tier of men’s tennis, and 20 from the ITF Futures Tour, the third division.
Five were from the lower level of the women’s game, the ITF Pro Circuit. There were also three from the ATP World Tour and one from the WTA circuit.
Between April and June, 31,281 professional matches were played, meaning 0.17% of them were the subject of an alert.
The cumulative alert figure for 2017 now stands at 83 – down from 121 in the same period of 2016.
The TIU will review all the alerts received to determine whether any further action is required. Some of the betting patterns associated with the alerts can be explained without corrupt activity being involved. However, where analysis does suggest wrongdoing, an investigation will be opened.
The TIU began publishing such reports early in 2016 in response to match-fixing allegations which were made by a BBC and Buzzfeed investigation first published during that year’s Australian Open.
Tennis authorities also set up an Independent Review Panel to look into all aspects of the sport’s anti-corruption approach. It had been due to announce its interim findings in the spring but is yet to publish any report.
Queries from this site asking when it will be published have not been responded to.
Meanwhile, the TIU has further expanded with the appointment of two further staff.
One of the criticisms thrown at it around the time of the BBC/Buzzfeed investigation was that it was underfunded but the unit has undergone significant expansion in the 18 months since.
