Swiss tennis great Roger Federer Friday warned players not to get involved in match-fixing, as Italian media reported a new investigation. The world number two said match-fixers angered him as much as dope cheats, as they threatened the sport's integrity and could turn off fans.
"I think it's just unacceptable when athletes, players, whatever you want to call it, try to do things like this or play with the integrity of the sport," he said. "I don't know if I get more angry or disappointed. It's just a pity to a game that has given us everything. Why would you want to play with that?
"You're not only taking a chance for yourself, but for so many other players to harm the sport. That's why it's disappointing to hear those kind of things." However, Federer said he had not read an unsourced report by Italy's www.ubitennis.com website that tennis chiefs were investigating irregular betting patterns surrounding a match in St. Petersburg in October.
A spokesman for the Tennis Integrity Unit, which is responsible for such investigations, told AFP that it never comments on its operations until it has an outcome to report. In 2008, Russia's Nikolay Davydenko was cleared after a lengthy probe into unusual betting on a match he played in Poland.