Tennis: Hewitt fixing link labelled 'unfair'

Lleyton Hewitt's name has been dragged into the match-fixing saga engulfing tennis. Photo / photosport.nz

Tennis officials have declared it is "deeply unfair" for Australian legend Lleyton Hewitt to be linked with a report on tennis' match-fixing scandal.

As the sport's top governing bodies on Wednesday announced at the Australian Open an "unprecedented" review into its anti-corruption unit would be conducted, ATP Tour president Chris Kermode said it was damaging for allegations to be made against any player, including Hewitt.

It comes after the BBC and BuzzFeed report, citing leaked files, claimed players who had reached the top 50 had been repeatedly suspected of fixing matches but had never faced action.

BuzzFeed data analysis of betting trends on professional matches claims to have identified 15 "red-flagged" players, including one grand slam champion, found to have regularly lost matches following suspicious betting activity - a key indicator of match fixing.

The joint investigation did not name any of the 15 players, but published the algorithm used to identify the players involved in matches with suspicious betting activity - including individual identification numbers for each case.

Datablog Show Legend last week claimed to have developed a way to identify the 15 players by cross-referencing the BuzzFeed data with its own ATP database.

The site only claims to have identified the 15 players highlighted by BuzzFeed and does not allege the 15 players it has identified were in any way involved in match fixing or corruption.

Hewitt was identified by the site as the grand slam champion involved in matches with suspicious betting activity.

Dutch programmers Chris Bol and his twin brother Adriaan conducted the data analysis for the blog.

Kermode on Wednesday said those allegations are "deeply unfair" - citing that suspicious betting activity is not a sure sign of match fixing.

"Again, I don't want to get into undermining anyone's journalism or how this investigative report came out, I think clearly that speaks volumes," Kermode said when asked about Hewitt being named.

"Lleyton Hewitt, as we all know, is one of the greatest competitors of all time. I'm not sure he'd give his mother one point when he was playing.

"However, that can't just stand alone. Again, we have heard examples of other great [players], where everyone has refuted that there have been any wrongdoings, but we need to go out and prove it.

"What I don't like is that names are attached based on absolutely no evidence whatsoever. I think it's deeply unfair. I think it's deeply damaging to the players."

Hewitt last week labelled the report a joke.

"I think it's a joke to deal with it," Hewitt said at the Australian Open. "You know, obviously, yeah, there's no possible way. I know my name's now been thrown into it. I don't think anyone here would think that I've done anything corruption or match-fixing. It's just absurd.

"For anyone that tries to go any further with it, then good luck. Take me on with it. Yeah, it's disappointing. I think throwing my name out there with it makes the whole thing an absolute farce."

-news.com.au