An investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office on 1is last October for “organized gang fraud” and “active and passive sports corruption” because of suspicion of a match-fixing during the Roland-Garros tennis tournament, which is currently taking place at Porte d’Auteuil, in Paris. The investigations were entrusted to the Central Service of Races and Games (SCCJ).
According to the German newspaper The Wellt and daily sports The team, these suspicions relate to a women’s double which pitted Romania’s Andrea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig against Russian players Yana Sizikova and American Madison Brengle on September 30, in the first round.
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“It’s a first round match with players not very well known”, simply confirmed to AFP a source within the National Gaming Authority (ANJ), which regulates games, horse racing and sports betting in France. The four players who took part in this meeting do not occupy the first ranks of the WTA world ranking in singles: Tig is ranked 59 there.e, Mitu 512e, Brengle 78e and Sizikova 652e.
Sums “of several tens of thousands of euros”
The suspicions concern more particularly the fifth game of the second set, a shutout won by the Romanian duo after two double faults in the service of the Russian Sizikova.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the bets made on this meeting represent “Obviously large sums, abnormally high” of the order of “Several tens of thousands of euros”. The ANJ did not detect an anomaly on the bets operated “On the French market”, explains the same source. “They must have been afraid to bet in France. They tried to disseminate the bets on other markets but the associations of operators know how to make additions ”.
Cases which most often concern tournaments of 2e category
“We received information through several channels. Both private operators, an alert from GLMS (Global Lottery Monitoring System) and also from the Copenhagen group (which brings together 33 platforms to fight against sports manipulation in the world) ”, we continue from the same source.
Tennis is occasionally struck by suspicion of match-fixing, which most often concerns second or third category professional tournaments. On September 27, two players of Kyrgyz and Uzbek nationalities were thus indicted and placed under judicial supervision in the Val-d’Oise, as part of an investigation opened by the Pontoise public prosecutor’s office after a tournament in Gonesse in March.
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