Russian Tennis Player Arrested At The French Open After Match Fixing Allegations
Alexander Bondarev. Shutterstock Images.The Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova has been arrested in Paris by French police as part of a match-fixing investigation. Sizikova, a 26-year-old doubles specialist, was taken into custody on Thursday night in relation to an investigation dating back to October for sports corruption and organised gang fraud.
Sizikova lost 6-1, 6-1 in her French Open first-round doubles match earlier on Thursday while partnering her compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova against Australian pair Ajla Tomljanovic and Storm Sanders. According to Le Parisien, Sizikova was arrested while leaving a massage session after her match and her hotel room was searched before her arrest.
Safe to say we've gotten our fair share of drama in the opening week of Roland Garros. First the Naomi Osaka saga that ended in her withdrawal from the tournament. Now we have a women's tennis player leaving in handcuffs as part of a match-fixing investigation dating back to last year. WHAT IS HAPPENING????
Yana Sizikova is not a household name in the tennis world but she's about to be in a heap of trouble. The 26 year old from Russia allegedly threw a match in last year's French Open that had some wildly irregular betting on it.
The arrest relates to last year’s tournament when bookmakers issued alerts for abnormal betting patterns during Sizikova’s first-round women’s doubles match alongside Madison Brengle of the United States, which they lost 7-6 (8), 6-4 to the Romanian duo of Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig.
During that encounter, hundreds of thousands of euros were reportedly wagered on a break of serve at 2-2 in set two. Sizikova was culpable for three of the points conceded during her service game, including two double faults as she lost her serve to love.
You just don't see hundreds of thousands of dollars being bet on a single service game in women's doubles. Way to be covert about the whole thing guys. The video of the alleged moment she fixed the match can be found below. Two double faults and a complete lack of effort to get to a ball don't exactly depict the Russian as the most innocent person in the world.
Yeah not great! So why would she do such a thing? Well, the Russian ranked 101st in the world has been a pro for 11 years and only managed to reel in $206,617 in prize money. Not condoning match fixing by any means, but you could see the motivation. Also Russians have been known in the past to match fix.
Yana Sizikova played in this year's French Open as well, losing yesterday in doubles. I'm sure this loss wasn't suspicious though, can't be too obvious right?
Oh boy. Well, when she gets out of prison I have an idea…go into modeling! It has to pay more than $20,000 a year and I bet it will be more successful than playing tennis.