{"id":78529,"date":"2025-01-18T05:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T10:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=78529"},"modified":"2025-01-18T05:28:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T10:28:37","slug":"itia-investigates-tomic-in-matchfixing-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/01\/18\/itia-investigates-tomic-in-matchfixing-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Tomic Investigated Over Suspected Match-Fixing in Australian Open Qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic was the subject of a police investigation into alleged match-fixing activities<\/a>, with suspicious betting patterns linked to two of his matches, including a 2022 Australian Open qualifying match.<\/p>\n

The investigation, led by Australian law enforcement agencies in collaboration with the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), was triggered after online bookmakers flagged unusual betting activity during Tomic\u2019s qualifying match against Russia\u2019s Roman Safiullin at the 2022 Australian Open. Authorities also examined a separate match Tomic played in a Challenger event in Turkey.<\/p>\n

During the Australian Open qualifying three years ago, Tomic lost 6-1 6-4 to Safiullin and made headlines during the match for telling the chair umpire that he believed he would soon test positive for COVID-19. \u201cI\u2019m sure in the next two days I will test positive. I\u2019m telling you, I\u2019ll buy you dinner if I don\u2019t test positive in three days, otherwise you buy me dinner,\u201d he said<\/a>. He indeed tested positive for COVID-19 two days later, further fueling controversy surrounding the match.<\/p>\n

The ITIA, responsible for safeguarding the integrity of professional tennis, launched a formal investigation. Tomic\u2019s phone was seized, and he was questioned extensively as part of the probe. However, despite the concerns raised by betting irregularities, both the police and the ITIA concluded their investigations without finding sufficient evidence to proceed with criminal charges.<\/p>\n

A Tennis Australia spokesperson acknowledged the reports, stating<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis Australia\u2019s integrity team has worked with the ITIA and law enforcement agencies since first being alerted to concerns relating to betting activity. We have been advised there is insufficient evidence to pursue charges further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomic, a former Wimbledon quarterfinalist and once heralded as one of Australia\u2019s most promising tennis talents, has faced a career decline in recent years. Currently ranked 212th in the world, he failed to qualify for the 2025 Australian Open after losing in the first round of qualifying.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old\u2019s career has been marred by controversies, including multiple fines for tanking, public outbursts, and disciplinary issues throughout his time on the ATP Tour. While the latest investigation has not resulted in formal charges, the attention surrounding the case has reignited scrutiny over match-fixing concerns in professional tennis.<\/p>\n

Main photo credit:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic was the subject of a police investigation into alleged match-fixing activities, with suspicious betting patterns linked to two of his matches, including a 2022 Australian Open qualifying match. The investigation, led by Australian law enforcement agencies in collaboration with the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), was triggered after online bookmakers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4590,"featured_media":75965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[366],"class_list":["post-78529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bernard-tomic"],"modified_by":"Jim Smith","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4590"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78539,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78529\/revisions\/78539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}