I Turned Down £110k To Throw A Match - Novak Djokovic

The crisis and allegation rocking the tennis world is getting messier as Novak Djokovic has come out to say how he turned down £110,000 to throw a tennis match following claims that match-fixing in the sport is being ignored.

A string of Grand Slam winners, none of whom have yet been named, were reportedly allowed to continue their careers despite suspicions being repeatedly raised that they had thrown matches. The group of corrupt players is said to include 16 who have ranked in the Top 50 over the last decade. The world number one spoke out after secret files said to expose evidence of top-level match fixing came to light. Djokovic instantly rejected the bribe made to him 10 years ago and has denounced the practice as a crime in sport. He claimed he was offered £110,000 to lose a first-round match in St Petersburg but says the bribe was turned down before it even reached him. He said “I was not approached directly I was approached through people that were working with me at that time, that were with my team. Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn't even get to me there was nothing out of it. It made me feel terrible because I don't want to be in any way linked to this - somebody may call it an opportunity. For me, it's an act of bad sportsmanship, a crime in sport honestly. I don't support it. I think there is no room for it in any sport, especially in tennis”.

Djokovic, however, insists he is not aware of any match-fixing at the top level of the game saying “from my knowledge and information about match-fixing or anything similar, there is nothing happening on the top level, as far as I know. It's always a choice for a tennis player, an athlete or any person in life. You always have a choice, especially for somebody who is on the tennis court, whether or not you're going to accept something that is going against everything that the sport stands for. I would always make the right choice. But I can only speak on my own behalf”.