Tennis was faced with accusations of match fixing for years: from the match that is infamous Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello in 2007 that first introduced much of the public to questions in regards to the integrity of matches in certain smaller tournaments to suspensions levied against two players earlier in the day this year, there always appears to be something lurking beneath the sport’s surface.

Those concerns were aired again this in a story by The Daily Beast, which once again attempted to delve through the information out there about tennis and figure out just how much of a problem match fixing is for the sport week.

One 2014 study cited in that story estimated that one percent of most tournament that is first-round could be fixed, which will suggest significantly more than 20 matches a year were influenced by gamblers; other estimates and guesses have suggested that multiple matches per week could possibly be fixed, though that’s still a very small percentage of all of the professional tennis matches.

Low Pay Leads to Temptation for Lower-Ranked Players

What makes tennis therefore vulnerable to complement repairing?

There are a combination of factors, lots of that really help explain why the situation appears most prominent at the low levels of the professional ranks.

First, there’s the most obvious fact that tennis ( at least in singles play) is a individual sport.

There is only one individual that has to be bribed in an effort to obtain them to throw a match (similar issue that leads numerous to worry extensive integrity problems in boxing as well as other combat sports), and there are no teammates or substitutes to choose up the slack for a player who is struggling.

That stated, no one is accusing Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal of repairing matches at Wimbledon.

For one, there’s the truth that these matches have an intense level of scrutiny if it could be done at all on them; perhaps even more importantly, though, star tennis players are extremely well compensated, meaning it would cost anyone attempting to fix a match at that level an exorbitant amount of money.

That is perhaps not to say that nobody tries. Even Novak Djokovic has told a tale to be offered $100,000 to fix a match back in 2006.

But players on the Challenger Tour or other low-ranked competitors aren’t making nearly that much cash, and may also even lose cash in an offered competition after travel and coaching expenses are taken into consideration.

That makes them targets that are prime gamblers trying to fix a match.

Spot Betting Allows Fixing Without Impacting Match Result

Another problem is the truth that gamblers do not have even to repair an entire match to find ways to profit.

Because numerous gambling sites and bookmakers offer betting on sets or also individual games, players can achieve agreements to allow certain events to happen at the best times to meet gamblers while still playing to win overall.

‘One particular typical fix would be to separate the first two sets to a predetermined script, then play the third set fairly to determine which player progresses,’ sports modeler Ian Dorward told Slate earlier this year.

The Tennis Integrity Unit is the human anatomy tasked with rooting out such issues, and they have sometimes made examples of players. In March, Elie Rousset and Walkter Trusendi each received six-month suspensions and fines for violations of anti-corruption rules, though perhaps not for match-fixing.

But regardless of what the Integrity Unit does, it is not likely to alter the culture that enables lower-ranked players to be incentivized to aid gamblers who would like to make bets that are sure.

That would need a change that is complete just how compensation works up and down the many levels of professional tennis, something that probably won’t happen any time quickly.