A Russian tennis player was arrested at the French Open on a probe to fix matches

Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova has been arrested at the French Open for questioning in a match-fixing investigation, and has overshadowed one of the sport’s major tournaments.

An official from the French Tennis Federation confirmed the arrest of the French Police and said that a police investigation was underway.

A player was arrested on Thursday night in connection with “actions that could be taken in September 2020,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press news agency. Complaints related to the resolution of the match, a person has provided information on the subject to the Financial Times newspaper.

Sizikova was released on Friday, his lawyer, Frederic Belot, told Reuters.

Last September, the French prosecutor opened an investigation into fraud in an “organized group” and in “active and passive corruption” for fixing alleged matches in a women’s doubles match at the 2020 French Open.

The investigation linked Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig to a match between the Romanian couple, and the American Sizikova and Madison Brengle. The Romanians won the match before being knocked out in the third round.

Belot explained that Sizikova and his partner complained that the couple had deliberately lost their service, which the Russian had made double mistakes.

He added that Sizikova contacted the tennis authorities last year and that he had given them an explanation, which he said they are “happy about”.

“So it’s calm and in the best possible condition that Yana Sizikova went to Paris a week ago to play in the 2021 French Women’s Open doubles tournament,” Belot said.

“He and his father were very surprised when they arrested him.”

Sizikova, 26, is ranked 101st in the world in doubles and 765th in singles. During her career, she earned $ 206,617, according to the Women’s Tennis Association.

He and the pair were knocked out in the French Open on Thursday in the first round, losing in straight sets.

The International Tennis Health Agency, the guardian against corruption in sport, can get a temporary suspension when a player is implicated, a person close to the organization said. The body, which was created by the governing bodies of sport, has discussed the situation with French police, the person said.

In May, Kazakh tennis player Roman Khassanov was banned for 10 years for violating anti-corruption rules. In January, the ITIA banned two Russian players after investigations that settled for life.

In 2016, Novak Djokovic, the world’s leading men’s singles player, recounted how he was told has rejected a view that he was a teenager deliberately losing the game.

Tennis and football are the two most played by criminals, according to the EU law enforcement agency Europol, and warns that economic tensions caused by the coronavirus pandemic in sport and the wider economy could increase the risk of corruption.

Last August, Europol warned that schemes to fix detected matches in tennis had increased, as organized crime groups in Eurasia were “heavily involved” in the sport.

According to evidence, nearly 500 tennis matches were manipulated between 2014 and 2018, according to the enforcement agency. Match fixers can try to get the result of a match, the individual set, the match or the kick-off.

Sizikova’s arrest is the latest debate at this year’s French Open, one of four major sporting events. Earlier this week, the second number was ranked Naomi Osaka retired press conferences followed by mentioning mental health issues from the event.