Next Gen Star Stefan Kozlov Eyes Top 100
Next Gen Star Stefan Kozlov Eyes Top 100
Jan052017
Australian Open junior champion Oliver Anderson has been charged with match-fixing in his native Australia.
The charges relate to a match at the Traralgon Challenger tournament in Victoria last October, according to a statement from Victoria Police.
Anderson, 18, beat Uzbekistan’s Jurabek Karimov to claim the Australian Open boys’ singles title in January 2016.
“Oliver is cooperating fully with authorities. He now awaits the legal process,” said a family spokesman.
He will appear before magistrates on 2 March.
Anderson, who is from Brisbane and ranked 743rd in the world, was first named by the Age newspaper in Melbourne on Thursday.
A Victoria Police statement added: “Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit detectives and bookmakers assisted with the investigation.
“The Queensland man was charged with engaging in conduct that corrupts a betting outcome.”
In the match at the centre of the allegations, Anderson lost the first set against Harrison Lombe after being broken at 4-4 before going on to win the next two sets.
Anderson then lost to John-Patrick Smith in the second round of the second-tier event in Latrobe City.
Last year, a joint BBC/Buzzfeed investigation alleged that the Tennis Integrity Unit, the organisation responsible for policing the sport, failed to act on suspicions that 16 top-50 ranked players have been involved in match-fixing.
Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent
The tennis authorities robustly defended their anti-corruption record when the BBC and Buzzfeed published their allegations on the first morning of last year’s Australian Open.
The independent review panel which was established in its wake is due to issue an interim report in the next few months, but there have already been a number of changes made to the Tennis Integrity Unit.
Its staff has been doubled in size; it now publishes the number of match alerts it receives from betting organisations on a three-monthly basis; and on the education front, there is an app presented in six different languages for players to download.
Sir Andy Murray progressed to the Qatar Open semi-finals by beating Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.
The top seed was broken in his opening service game by 31-year-old Almagro, ranked 44th in the world, but recovered to take the first set tie-break.
The pair exchanged breaks early in the second set before Murray prevailed.
Murray will face third seed Tomas Berdych in the semis and, if he progresses, could meet Novak Djokovic in Saturday’s final.
Djokovic, whom Murray replaced as world number one in November, beat veteran Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-3 in their quarter-final to book a meeting with Fernando Verdasco of Spain in the last four.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Aljaz Bedene beat Slovakia’s Martin Klizan to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open in India.
And Australia’s Nick Kyrgios was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Jack Sock at the mixed teams Hopman Cup, in the tie between Australia and the United States.
Kyrigos was defeated in under an hour and later pulled out of the mixed doubles event with a knee problem.
His injury comes less than two weeks before the Australian Open – the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne.
Britain’s Aljaz Bedene beat Slovakia’s Martin Klizan to reach the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open in India.
Bedene, ranked 101, overcame the fourth seed 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-2).
The British number four came from 5-2 down to force a tie-break and take the first set, but he was broken at the start of the second and the world number 35 went on to level the match.
Bedene broke early in the third set and, after three hours on court, prevailed in a third tie-break to win.
The Briton faces French fifth seed Benoit Paire on Friday.
After 15 months out, Kokkinakis has a smile back on his face
Australian Next Gen start Thanasi Kokkinakis is set to play his first ATP World Tour singles match in more than a year at the Apia International Sydney next week after a confidence-boosting run to the semi-finals of the Brisbane International doubles. Kokkinakis is happy with how his right shoulder has held up in two doubles wins with fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in Brisbane this week, including Thursday’s 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 upset of top seeds and reigning Wimbledon champions Pierre Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.
“The body felt good today,” Kokkinakis said. “I feel I am still five to 10 percent off. Getting the confidence back in the body is the biggest thing.
“I’m excited (to take the Sydney wild card]. I was trying to play here but I just didn’t feel I was quite ready. I’m trying to train as much as I can because I didn’t have a massive pre-season trying to get healthy. Had it not been the Australian summer I probably would have taken more time, but it would be tough to miss two in a row for me. I’m really keen to play.”
Kokkinakis, 20, said that his decision to enter the Australian Open later this month would depend on his his body felt after his singles return in Sydney. “Obviously I want to play but honestly it’s 50/50 at the moment because I know how much of a step up five sets is,” he said. “If I don’t play singles I want to play the doubles at least, maybe even mixed.
In 2015 the Adelaide native reached a career-high Emirates ATP Ranking of 69 and finished (at No. 80) as one of four teenagers in the year-end Top 100. Kokkinakis underwent shoulder surgery on December 29, 2015. He did not play a tournament match on the ATP World Tour last year. His lone appearance came at the Rio Olympics.
Canadian waits on the winners of Nadal or Zverev
Top seed Milos Raonic has delivered on his New Year’s resolution to move forward more in 2017, taking command at net in a 6-3, 6-2 opening-round win over Argentine Diego Schwartzman on Thursday at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp.
Raonic said that his decision to add former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek to his coaching team was based in large part to a shared belief that tapping further upside in the Canadian’s game will most likely come from more forays to the net. Against Schwartzman, Raonic ventured to net 22 times, winning on 12 occasions.
“I probably should have approached 12 more times and I probably should have won a few more,” said Raonic, who went 6/11 in the first set at the net. “I definitely want to, especially at the beginning, since obviously I didn’t take care of my serve so well. I hesitated, but also, with him, you’ve got to understand that he’s quite quick. So rarely do you get him sort of reaching for balls.
“If he’s able to get to the ball, it’s normally with two hands. So he can come up with some good shots, and he was able to do that today, passing some incredible backhands down the line. A few I should have made or should have covered better, I got a little bit lazy on. But I’ve got to put myself there to give myself an opportunity to get better at it.”
Raonic also hit 12 aces and won 75 per cent of his first-service points in the 69-minute victory. He broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set, then won five straight games after Schwartzman had broken serve in the first game of the second set.
“At the beginning I really struggled that first service game, and had another close service game before I started to get in on his games,” said World No. 3 Raonic, who will next face fifth seed Rafael Nadal or Mischa Zverev in the quarter-finals. “Then I could feel I started imposing myself on him. He started making some mistakes, and I was able to create some things, as well. I have to be glad with how I finished.”
Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov will face off in the quarter-finals after both advanced in straight sets.
Thiem saved all four break points against Aussie wild card Sam Groth to move into the last eight 7-6(5), 6-3. The fourth seed won only one point against the big-serving Groth’s first serve, but Thiem feasted on the Aussie’s second offering, winning 61 per cent (14/23) of those points.
Dimitrov, the seventh seed, converted all three break points against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to advance 6-2, 6-4. Thiem beat Dimitrov in their only prior FedEx ATP Head2Head match-up last year in Acapulco.
British number one Johanna Konta continued her good start to 2017 by reaching the semi-finals of the Shenzhen Open in China.
Konta beat world number 60 Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-7 (11-13) 6-3.
Her semi-final opponent will be another Czech, Katerina Siniakova, or Serbian qualifier Nina Stojanovic.
Siniakova caused a surprise in the second round by beating second seed Simona Halep.
Konta looked in control early on against her opponent, the twin sister of world number six Karolina Pliskova, as she took the first set with a single break of serve.
Neither player could force a break point in the second set and in the resulting tie-break Konta wasted two match points before the big-serving Pliskova levelled the match on her fifth set point.
But Konta stayed firm in the final set, claiming the break and reaching the semi-final on her fifth match point.
“I am very happy to have extended my stay here – I want to stay here as long as possible,” she said.
“She is one of the best servers on tour so I knew going into the match I was going to have a hard time on her service games. I was very happy I was able to get that break in the third and see it out in the end.”