29 Jan 2016

No match fixing at ASB Classic - official

11:47 am on 29 January 2016

There is no evidence of match fixing at the ASB Classic tennis tournament, the Auckland event's director says.

Rain has delayed play at the ASB Tennis Classic.

Rain has delayed play at the ASB Tennis Classic. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Last week, a joint investigation by the BBC and Buzzfeed revealed a group of players had been suspected of match fixing by the Tennis Integrity Unit over the past decade.

On Thursday, NZME reported at least four matches played in New Zealand's premier tennis tournament between 2011-2014 were suspected of match fixing.

However, ASB Classic tournament director Karl Budge told Checkpoint with John Campbell he had not had any suggestion from the ATP that matches in New Zealand were under investigation.

"There's no hard evidence of any suspicion saying 'hey, look i think there was a match played in 2012 or in 2014', or whenever it may have been," Budge said.

"It's looking at betting patterns and it just so happens that those betting matches, of the 50 matches that they looked at, four of them were here."

Former ASB and Heineken Open tournament director Richard Palmer has also told Checkpoint there was no suspicion of match fixing when he was in charge.