Australian Anderson suspended over match-fixing claims
Australian Open junior champion Oliver Anderson has been provisionally suspended over claims of match-fixing in his native Australia.
Anderson, 18, has not been found guilty but will be suspended from professional tennis until the conclusion of the Tennis Integrity Unit’s investigation.
Victoria Police says the charges relate to a match at the Traralgon Challenger tournament in Victoria last October.
He will also appear before magistrates on 2 March.
Anderson, now ranked 1083 in the world, beat Uzbekistan’s Jurabek Karimov to claim the Australian Open boys’ singles title in January 2016.
During his suspension, which the TIU says is not a determination of the player’s guilt or innocence of corruption, Anderson will not be allowed to compete or attend any tournament or event organised or sanctioned by the tennis governing bodies.
Anderson, who is from Brisbane, was first named by the Age newspaper in Melbourne in January 2017.
A statement from Victoria Police at the time said: “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, an investigation by the BBC and BuzzFeed alleged that the TIU failed to act on suspicions that 16 players, who over the last decade have been ranked in the world’s top 50, had been involved in match-fixing.