 Secret files exposing evidence of widespread suspected match-fixing at the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon, can be revealed by the BBC and BuzzFeed News. The sport’s governing bodies have been warned repeatedly about a core group of 16 players – all of whom have ranked in the top 50 – but none have faced any sanctions and more than half of them will begin playing at the Australian Open on Monday. The investigation into men’s tennis by BuzzFeed News and the BBC is based on a cache of leaked documents from inside the sport – the Fixing Files – as well as an original analysis of the betting activity on 26,000 matches and interviews across three continents with gambling and match-fixing experts, tennis officials, and players. It can today be revealed: 
 
 Winners of singles and doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments are among the core group of 16 players who have repeatedly been reported for losing games when highly suspicious bets have been placed against them. Eight of the players repeatedly flagged to the TIU over the past decade are due to play in the Australian Open which starts on Monday 18 January. Media playback is not supported on this device ATP president Chris Kermode tells the BBC he is aware there is match-fixing within tennis but says it is at an 'incredibly small level' 
 
 The documents we have obtained show the enquiry found betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily making hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on matches investigators thought to be fixed. “As a result,” he said, “no new investigations into any of the players who were mentioned in the 2008 report were opened.” 
 
 Match-fixing has been explicitly outlawed by every previous version of the rules enforced by the game’s governing bodies. Willerton insisted that the sport takes “a zero-tolerance approach to all aspects of betting-related corruption” and that “all credible information received by the TIU is analysed, assessed, and investigated by highly experienced former law-enforcement investigators.” And he pointed out that the Tennis Integrity Unit has disciplined 13 male players (all low-ranking) for fixing and banned five for life even though, Willerton said, prosecuting corruption cases is “notoriously difficult”. Chris Kermode, who heads the Association of Tennis Professionals, rejected claims evidence of match-fixing had "been suppressed for any reason or isn't being thoroughly investigated". "There is an element of actually keeping things under wraps," said Benn Gunn, a former police chief constable who conducted a major review of betting in tennis that led to the creation of the Tennis Integrity Unit. A group of whistle blowers inside tennis, who want to remain anonymous, recently passed the documents on to the BBC and Buzzfeed News. But Phillips and two other investigators who conducted the probe said the evidence they found was “as strong as any evidence we’ve had” and the authorities “did nothing”. BuzzFeed News and the BBC have chosen not to name the players whose matches have repeatedly been flagged for attracting highly suspicious betting, because without access to phone, bank, or computer records it is not possible to prove a link between the players and the gamblers. The integrity unit has the power to demand all that evidence from any tennis professional, yet many of the individuals whose activity attracted the most serious concern are still playing at a high level. So Ings introduced a new anti-corruption code that compelled players to hand over their phone and bank records to the ATP if they were suspected of fixing matches. Phillips concluded: “In almost 20 years of working in the gambling industry, as an on-course bookmaker, an odds compiler/trader, and as a betting investigator, I have never seen a match or race where so much of the money wagered was done at such unrealistic odds and by linked accounts.” 
 
 The betting analyst was then tasked with examining which other matches the Moscow ring had been betting on. Its job was to look into suspicious betting activity after a game involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello. There were 28 players whom Phillips suspected of rigging the outcome of those matches, with a core of 10 against whom he felt the case was overwhelming. Three of them had taken place at Wimbledon, and one was at the French Open. ID: 7783679 
 
 Bill Babcock, the ITF’s Grand Slam director who had overseen their investigation, publicly accepted the recommendation, but he put an optimistic spin on it. In a confidential report for the tennis authorities in 2008, the enquiry team said 28 players involved in these matches should be investigated, but the findings were never followed up. Media playback is not supported on this device Mark Phillips is a betting analyst who worked on an investigation into suspicious gambling in tennis 
 
 The BBC and Buzzfeed were also passed the names of other current players the TIU have repeatedly been warned about by betting organisations, sports integrity units and professional gamblers. The European Sports Security Association, which collects suspicious betting alerts from bookmakers, has sent the Tennis Integrity Unit warnings from its members about suspicious matches involving 15 of the players whose names have repeatedly been flagged to the authorities. In one case, the integrity unit was sent four alerts about a particular player and warned to take note of his “relentless abuse”. In addition, the European Sports Security Association alerted the Tennis Integrity Unit to 49 suspicious matches in the first three quarters of last year alone and warned in three successive reports that tennis attracts more dubious betting activity than any other sport. He added that “it is not the role of betting companies to make judgments about corrupt activity” and gambling sources “are simply not qualified to make statements about whether investigations have or have not taken place”. (One low-ranking player from the wider list was recently disciplined for failing to cooperate with the integrity unit in relation to unspecified offences.) The Tennis Integrity Unit has not publicly sanctioned them for fixing. Köllerer said that match-fixing was a widespread problem and claimed he knew of other players who were implicated.
– First FIFA, now this? Yep, evidence has emerged of possible widespread match-fixing in the pristine world of professional tennis. According to documents obtained by the BBC and Buzzfeed, investigators hired by the Association of Tennis Professionals uncovered signs of corrupt betting syndicates and gamblers buying off well-ranked players—but little was done to fix the problem. "There was a core of about 10 players who we believed were the most common perpetrators that were at the root of the problem," says Mark Phillips, an investigator in a landmark 2007 enquiry. "The evidence was really strong." Yet tennis officials shelved their conclusions, saying lawyers advised them that strict new rules couldn't be applied to players retroactively. Among the accusations: Corrupt gamblers have contacted players in their hotels and offered them $50,000 or more to fix a match. Gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy then placed "highly suspicious bets on scores of matches—including at Wimbledon and the French Open," says Buzzfeed. More than 70 players are suspected of taking part, but Buzzfeed and the BBC decided not to print names because the suspects' computer, bank, and phone records weren't available as conclusive proof. Suspects include winners of Grand Slam singles and doubles titles, and eight players slated to play in the Australian Open starting Monday. "There is an element of actually keeping things under wraps," says an investigator. But Nigel Willerton, who heads the unit designed to police tennis, denies the accusations: "All credible information received by the [Tennis Integrity Unit] is analysed, assessed, and investigated by highly experienced former law-enforcement investigators," he says.