Two Italian Tennis Players Accused of Match Fixing

October 16, 2014 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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Italian tennis players Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace are facing accusations of corruption following the revelation of Internet conversations that were printed in the Italian media on Wednesday. The conversations were part of a much larger pool of data that investigators in Cremona have been combing through as they look into match-fixing in soccer.

In July of 2007, in a Skype conversation between Bracciali and an accountant who was arrested in 2011, the two discuss fixing a match against American Scoville Jenkins in Newport, R.I. Jenkins would win that match 6-2, 6-1.

An owner of a betting parlor who has since been arrested was overhead in a 2011 conversation saying that Starace had decided to throw the final of a tournament in Casablanca to Spain’s Pablo Andujar. Andujar won that match 6-1, 6-2.

Robert DiMartino, the prosecutor who is leading the Cremona inquiry, confirmed the validity of the conversations to The Associated Press.

While neither is under formal investigation or has been charged with anything, there is history. The two were suspended, along with three other Italian players, by the ATP back in 200708- for betting.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said it will request copies of these documents from Cremona involving all tennis players.

Match fixing in tennis has become somewhat of a hot-button issue over the last couple of years. Daniel Koellerer of Austria was banned for life in 2011, David Savic of Serbia was banned for life in 2012, and the same fate was handed down to Andrey Kumantsov of Russia earlier this year.

Australian police arrested five individuals and charged one man in an operation that took down a tennis match-fixing syndicate this past July.

Bracciali and Starace made no comment regarding the issue following their first-round doubles win at the Kremlin Cup on Wednesday. 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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