By Adrianna Outlaw | Monday, January 18, 2016

 

"I would like to hear the name. I would love to hear names," Federer said.

Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve

Grand Slam champions are among a core group of 16 players link to match-fixing, an investigative report asserts.

Grand Slam king Roger Federer says name names.

Video: Djokovic Was Once Offered 200K to Throw Match

"I would like to hear the name. I would love to hear names," Federer told the media following his Australian Open first-round win. "Then at least it's concrete stuff and you can actually debate about it. Was it the player? Was it the support team? Who was it? Was it before? Was it a doubles player, a singles player? Which Slam?

"It's so all over the place. It's nonsense to answer something that is pure speculation."

Federer, a former ATP Player Council president, said he would be surprised by corruption at the top levels of tennis.

"It's super serious and it's super important to maintain the integrity of our sport," Federer said. "So how high up does it go? The higher it goes, the more surprised I would be, no doubt about it. Not about people being approached, but just people doing it in general. I just think there's no place at all for these kind of behaviors and things in our sport. I have no sympathy for those people."

BuzzFeed News and the BBC charge "widespread match fixing by players at the upper level of the tennis world" in the new investigative report titled The Tennis Racket.

Federer said corruption concerns have been an issue in recent years.

"Doesn't matter whether I've been approached or not, I haven't. It's a bit farfetched, all these things," Federer said. "Clearly for a few years now we know this is very serious. Got to do everything about it to keep the sport clean. It's vital, there's no doubt about it.

The investigating report asserts:

•Grand Slam singles and doubles champions are among "the core group of 16 players who have repeatedly been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets have been placed against them."
• An unnamed Top-50 player playing the Australian Open is suspected of repeatedly fixing his first set.
• Players are being targeted in hotel rooms at major tournaments and "offered $50,000 or more per fix by corrupt gamblers."
• Gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy have "made hundreds of thousands of pounds placing highly suspicious bets on scores of matches – including at Wimbledon and the French Open."
• The names of more than 70 players appear on leaked lists of suspected fixers who have "been flagged up to the tennis authorities over the past decade without being sanctioned."

The 17-time Grand Slam champion said money makes match-fixing a threat to the integrity of the sport at all levels.   
"It doesn't matter how much money you pump into the system, there's always going to be people approaching players, or people, any sport," Federer said. "It's all a question of money, you know. It doesn't maybe happen at the challengers. It's going to happen at the futures.

"It's going to go away if you offer $1 million for every player to play at every tournament? It's not going to change a thing. Still might be approached."