By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, October 15, 2014

 

Already suspended in 2007, Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace are at the center of a match fixing scandal yet again.

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Italian tennis was rocked by controversy on Wednesday, as the media printed transcripts of Skype conversations that linked Italian professionals Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali to fixing matches in 2007 and 2011.

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The conversations were uncovered during a probe into match fixing for football in Cremona, and there are conversations in which Bracciali discusses losing a match in Newport in 2007 to Scoville Jenkins, and another in which an owner of a betting parlor talks of an agreement he has arranged with Starace to fix the 2011 final in Casablanca against Pablo Andujar.

According to the Associated Press, Prosecutor Roberto Di Martino, who is leading the Cremona inquiry, confirmed the authenticity of the conversations.

Di Martino also added that foreign players might be involved, but that he was not at liberty to say any more.

According to Ubitennis.com, Bracciali had discussed dropping a match to American Scoville Jenkins for 50 thousand Euros per set. “If we win we’ll get it to you and 50, 50 for a set looks good,” a man named Manlio Bruni tells Bracciali.

Investigators uncovered a call made in 2011 in which an owner of a betting parlor who was later arrested confirmed that he had an agreement with Starace to lose the 2011 Casablanca final against Pablo Andujar.

Starace lost 6-1, 6-2.

Both Starace and Bracciali were suspended for betting in 2007, but it was found that neither had bet on their own matches and each had wagered relatively small amounts.

Bracciali, 36, is a doubles specialist on tour, while Starace, 33, is currently 149 in the world. The pair of Italians is currently playing doubles at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. According to the AP, they refused comment after their first-round win on Wednesday.