Paris: Paris police on Friday detained Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova over the suspected fixing of a doubles match at the French Open last year, a police and legal source said.
Sizikova, 26, who is ranked 101st in the women’s doubles rankings, was detained on Thursday night at the end of a match in this year’s tournament, the sources said on condition of anonymity. Le Parisien newspaper, which first reported the arrest, said that she was arrested after she came out of her post-match massage. Her hotel room was also searched, it added. An investigation into possible sports corruption and organised fraud was opened last October over a first-round match in 2020 that saw Sizikova and her American partner Madison Brengle defeated by Romanian pair Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig.
Suspicions were aroused because of abnormally high betting activity on the game registered in countries outside of France which was reported to law enforcement, a source close to the case told at the time.
Sizikova is a doubles specialist with a current singles ranking of 765 in the world.