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Beautiful tennis indeed.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This post was published prior to the 2016 Australian Open women's final.
Since the beginning of the Open era, 22 players have claimed the Australian Open women's singles title. These women have not just shown us their incredible skill, but also brought their A-game in fashion.
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More than 40 top flight tennis matches were identified by bookies as ‘suspicious’ in a three-month period in 2015, a new investigation into match-fixing in the sport has claimed.
Julian Smith / AAPIMAGE
One of the matches identified as suspicious was described by a bookies as the ‘weirdest match ever’, while at least four of the players involved in the allegedly dodgy games competed at this year’s Australian Open, according to the investigation aired tonight by the ABC’s Four Corners.
International gambling outfits have a ‘blacklist’ of more than 350 professional tennis players who are considered too risky for bookmakers to offer odds on.
One former pro player and coach said that match-fixing remains a ‘major problem’ in tennis, especially for young up-and-coming players on the lower-tier circuit.
“I think match fixing is a major part of tennis as we sit here and speak,” Jay Salter told the program.
“I think it’s always been talked about as I was a young 18, 19-year-old junior coming through trying to make ends meet. It has also come up in being a coach, with young guys that I coach that say ‘look these offers have been made. What do you think, Should I do it? Should I go down that path?’,” he said.
“The experts would be correct to say that it’s a big problem.”
Salter’s comments come a week after Australian former pro Nick Lindahl pleaded guilty to deliberately losing a match at a tournament in the country town of Toowoomba in 2013 in order to obtain financial advantage.
Sydney’s Burwood Local Court heard that when police asked Lindahl why he had tanked the match, the former World No. 187 said: “that’s what tennis players do.”
Nick LIndahl competing at the Australian Open in 2010. Cameron Spencer / Getty Images
Richard Ings, a former ATP executive in charge of rules, told the program that tennis is the perfect sport to fix.
“The line between winning a match and losing a match is very small,” Ings said. “All it takes is one backhand that misses the baseline by a couple of inches, a second serve fault on a big break point and a player has lost a match 6-3, 6-4 and in so doing can lose the match without any suspicion at all that the player actually threw the outcome.”
“I would not be surprised at all if there were many, many, many dozens of matches across all levels of tennis which have suspicious betting patterns every year.”
The revelations come after tennis authorities last week announced they would set up an independent investigation into the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), following a BuzzFeed News/BBC investigation, which showed that the sport’s governing bodies were repeatedly warned, but failed to act, on significant evidence of match-fixing at the top levels of the sport.
Speaking to Four Corners, International Tennis Federation David Haggerty flatly denied the sport has a match-fixing problem and pledged that the TIU would investigate all claims of corruption in the sport.
FC Barcelona are reportedly arranging for the child to fly to Spain to meet Lionel Messi.
According to an English-speaking mediator helping me to communicate with the family, the child said "but my name's not Richard!", when holding up the sign.
BuzzFeed / Azim Ahmadi
AEL Larissa and Acharnaikos players sat for two minutes on Friday in a call for authorities to protect refugees — particularly children — crossing the Aegean Sea.
OTE TV / Via youtube.com
The two minutes of silence came at the beginning of a match between AEL Larissa and Acharnaikos in the city of Larissa, Reuters reported.
OTE TV / Via youtube.com
OTE TV / Via youtube.com
The Cleveland Browns player was part of a “disturbance” in Dallas Friday night, and has not been arrested.
Scott Eklund / AP
Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel may have been involved in an altercation with his ex-girlfriend on Friday night in Dallas, according to a police report.
The woman called Fort Worth Police just before 2 a.m. Saturday and told officers that she had been involved in a "disturbance" with Manziel, her ex-boyfriend, according to a statement provided to BuzzFeed News by Fort Worth police.
Authorities determined after a preliminary investigation that "a possible assault had occurred" in Dallas or elsewhere outside of Fort Worth.
The two cities' departments are now working together to find out if Manziel committed a criminal offense.
A Dallas Police spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in an email that officers were in the early stages of the investigation and could not comment further.
Manziel's ex-girlfriend also told Fort Worth officers that she was concerned for his "well-being." The officer attempted to contact Manziel and eventually confirmed that he was safe and not in danger.
Last October, Manziel was stopped by police in Ohio for reckless driving. His ex-girlfriend, who was in the car with him that night, accused him of assaulting her. Police said they determined the woman was intoxicated and allowed the couple to continue.
The 23-year-old NFL player also has a history of alcohol abuse. He voluntarily entered a rehabilitation facility in January 2015 for four months.
LINK: Quarterback Johnny Manziel Pulled Over After Reckless Driving, Argument With Girlfriend
