BEVERLY HILLS, June 04, (THEWILL) – While the current French Open could do without any extra drama especially after the mental health debate around the withdrawal of world number two female tennis player Naomi Osaka from Paris, extra drama arrived but from last year’s event.
On Friday, it was revealed that Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova was arrested at the French Open following match-fixing allegations made against her.
The 26-year-old was placed into custody on charges of “sports bribery and organised fraud for acts likely to have been committed in September 2020.”
THEWILL recalls that Sizikova was already the subject of corruption and fraud allegations following a doubles defeat alongside Madison Brengle at Roland Garros in September 2020. Bookmakers noticed an abnormally high overseas betting activity on the match that Sizikova and Brengle lost to Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig.
The circumstances that led Sizikova to double-fault in the fifth game of the second set as she was broken to love in that clash at Roland Garros was of particular interest to authorities. The French Tennis Federation confirmed Sizikova, who is ranked 101 on the women’s doubles circuit, had been arrested but declined to comment further about how the case was going.
Attending this year’s event in the women’s doubles again, Sizikova was knocked out in the first round alongside Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-1 6-1 by Ajla Tomljanović and Storm Sanders.
When queried about the development, Shamil Tarpischev, the President of the Russian Tennis Federation, responded: “We have not received any documents (regarding the case), so it’s difficult to make an assessment of what has happened.”
So far, there have been no official statements to report about the case from the Russian Tennis Federation or from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), which deals with corruption in the sport and cases like match-fixing.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
