Russian Yana Sizikova poses for a photo during the Winter Moscow Open 2021 tennis tournament in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021. The Paris prosecutor’s office says a tennis player suspected of match-fixing last year has been arrested during the French Open. French newspaper Le Parisien reports that the player is 765th-ranked Yana Sizikova of Russia. The prosecutor’s office tells The Associated Press that a “women’s international player” was in custody but it did not identify her. The prosecutor’s office says the player was arrested Thursday, June 3, 2021 on charges of “sports bribery and organized fraud for acts likely to have been committed in September 2020.”
PARIS (AP) — A Russian tennis player suspected of match-fixing last year has been arrested during this year’s French Open, her lawyer told The Associated Press on Friday.
The player, 765th-ranked Yana Sizikova of Russia, denied the allegations, according to her lawyer, Frederic Belot. He told The Associated Press that Sizikova wants to file a complaint for defamation.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to the AP that a “women’s international player” was in custody, but it did not identify her. She was arrested Thursday night on charges of “sports bribery and organized fraud for acts likely to have been committed in September 2020,” the prosecutor’s office said.
An investigation was opened last October by a French police unit specializing in betting fraud and match-fixing. It has previously worked with Belgian authorities investigating suspect matches at the lower levels of professional tennis.
The French tennis federation said it could not provide further information because the investigation is ongoing.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency, which investigates match-fixing in the sport, declined to comment on the details of the case but said in a message to the AP that “there has been ongoing liaison between the ITIA and law enforcement in France.”
Speaking to the AP in a phone interview, her lawyer said Sizikova was “extremely shocked.”
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