Yana Sizikova denies match-fixing charge

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 added 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 on Thursday night on charges of “sports bribery and organised 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 specialising 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.”

“She was placed in custody like a criminal. She says she is innocent and did not want me to assist her during her questioning because she considers herself like a victim,” Belot said.

The prosecutor’s office said the probe centred on suspicions about one match at Roland Garros last year. It did not specify the match. German newspaper Die Welt and French sports daily L’Equipe said at the time there were suspicious betting patterns in the first round of a women’s doubles match on Sept. 30.

On that day, Sizikova and partner Madison Brengle of the United States played on Court No. 10 against Romanian players Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig. Sizikova was broken to love serving in the fifth game of the second set, during which she double-faulted twice.

Le Parisien reported on Friday that tens of thousands of euros were bet with several operators in different countries on the Romanian players winning that game.