15 people were arrested in yet another tennis match fixing scandal.   One of those arrested is Spanish tennis player Marc Fornell-Mestres, who was suspended by theTennis Integrity Unit last month.  His highest ranking was 1007th in singles.  Of the 83 people implicated, 28 were players in the ITF Futures and Challenger tours.

You can read the full article here. Link

This not making anyone in the tennis establishment look good.  Most of these activities are taking place in the Futures and Challenger tours  that don’t have the attention of most tennis fans. We are lucky that the upper echelon of the sport, the ATP tour remains mostly clean.  So far.

Most players in the Futures and Challengers tours have little chance of playing at the ATP level.  The prize money is very low for these players.  Match fixing clearly offers a financial incentive for these players. There is not an easy way to fix this mess. Increasing prize alone is not going to fix this.  Tennis has quite a problem on its hands.

Andy Murray announced his impending retirement at an emotional press conference at the Australian Open. Murray said he hopes to Wimbledon to be the “end point” but said retirement could come sooner.

Murray has struggled since his hip surgery last year. Murray said,
“I’m not feeling good. I’ve been struggling for a long time. Been in a lot of pain for 20 months now. Pretty much done everything I could to make my hip feel better. “Wimbledon is where I would like to stop playing but I’m not certain I’ll be able to do that. I’m not certain I can play through the pain for another four or five months.

Considered part of the Big Four along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Murray achieved many firsts for Britain, including becoming the country’s first number one ranked player.

Murray’s career in numbers:

World Number One: Murray became the first British singles player ever to officially be ranked world number one on November 7, 2016. 
41 The number of weeks Murray spent on top of the rankings. 
Three grand slam titles 
11 grand slam finals 
45 career singles titles 
Two doubles titles – both with his brother, Jamie 
Two Olympic singles gold medals 
11 Murray won every rubber he contested to drive Great Britain to Davis Cup glory in 2015 
663 Tour-level matches won 
$61 million total career prize money
29 combined wins against Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

Hip surgeries are never easy to recovery from and play tennis at the highest level. But to see Murray go out limping is a bit sad. He had a great career by any measure and will be remembered fondly by fellow players and fans. He will especially remembered fondly in Britain for a long time.

Well done, mate!