Canadian Milos Raonic defeated former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in 4 tie-break sets to move to the third round. In a match lasting over four hours that began under open skies and finished with the roof closed on Rod Laver Arena following a rain delay, Raonic won 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (13-11), 7-6 (7-5).

19-year old Australian, Alexei Popyrin, upset seventh seed Dominic Thiem, who was forced to retire during their round-two match. Thiem could not continue because of illness. Popyrin led 7-5, 6-4, 2-0 at the time Thiem’s retirement.

Serena Williams was all business in the second round, easily beating Eugenie Bouchard 6-2 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena. Williams said “It wasn’t an easy match tonight. Genie has been to the finals of Wimbledon and the semifinals of other Grand Slams, so I said, ‘You’ve got to come out hot, come out firing.’

“I haven’t had many matches since last year, but it’s okay. I got to spend time with my daughter, and that matters the most to me. I’ve always been told that they grow up so fast, so I wanted to be able to take that time and say I spent it with her. It means a lot to me.”

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.