Maria Sharapova: Unaware of match-fixing in tennis

The investigation examined suspicious betting activity after a game involving Davydenko, Vassallo.

New Delhi: On Monday morning BBC took the tennis world by storm with their breaking that over the last decade tennis players who had been ranked among the world’s top 50, including winners of Grand Slam titles, were involved in match-fixing, and it.

Despite that, tennis ace Maria Sharapova hopes that match-fixing does not exist in the sport of tennis.

When asked in a interview that whether she believed that match-fixing existed in tennis, the Russian player said "honestly, I really hope not."

"I mean, to me the sport itself has always meant a lot more than money. I know that the more successful you are and the more matches you win, the more prize money, the more money you will receive," she the Russian as per the report published in IANS.

"But ultimately that's never been my personal driving factor in the sport," she said. "There's just so much more on the line. There's the competitiveness. There's the challenge of being better. There's playing in front of thousands of people, playing you against somebody across the net and you trying to win that match," added Sharapova.

The documents obtained by the BBC "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. Three of these matches were at Wimbledon."

The investigation examined suspicious betting activity after a game involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo.