The BBC and BuzzFeed claimed 16 players who had reached the top 50 in the past decade, including Grand Slam champions, had been repeatedly suspected of fixing matches for betting syndicates.
Djokovic, after opening with a win over South Korea’s Chung Hyeon, played down the report but he also said he was targeted in 2007 to throw a first-round match at St Petersburg.
“I was not approached directly. I was approached through people that were working with me at that time,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“Of course, we threw it away right away. It didn’t even get to me, the guy that was trying to talk to me, didn’t even get to me directly. There was nothing out of it.
“Unfortunately in those times (there were) rumours, some talks, some people were going around. They were dealt with.
“In the last six, seven years, I haven’t heard anything similar. I personally was never approached directly, so I have nothing more to say about that.”
‘A CRIME IN SPORT’
Djokovic was reportedly offered US$200,000 to throw the match, in an incident which gives an insight into the murky world of match-fixing — which the Serb called “a crime in sport”.
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