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Aussie star asked to fix match

Young Australian tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis says people have approached him on social media asking him to tank matches.

The revelation came a day after world number one Novak Djokovic said he was offered $200,000 to throw a match around 10 years ago.

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Speaking on radio station 3AW, Kokkinakis saidĀ the offers would be left on his Facebook page, and said he tried to block them from his mind.

ā€œNot face-to-face, but on social media, you read some stuff on your Facebook page,ā€ the 19-year-old said.

ā€œJust these randoms from nowhere saying ā€˜I’ll pay you this much money to tank a game’.

ā€œI try and block it and get rid of that stuff and focus on what you need to do.ā€

Kokkinakis also said he copped abuse and threats on social media when matches didn’t go his way.

ā€œIt’s interesting – you get a lot of stuff if you lose a match that maybe the bettors or something think you should win – you just get abused on social media,ā€ he said.

ā€œIt’s a very common thing. For tennis players, and I’d assume other sports, it’s a very common thing.

ā€œYou just try and block it away and there’s no time for that in this sport.ā€

Raonic wants culprits ā€˜weeded out’

Brisbane International winner Milos Raonic told media after his first round Australian Open win he believed efforts to stamp out match-fixing in tennis were sufficient.

ā€œI believe there is a hotline that we have as an option really to confront if this does come up,ā€ Raonic said.

ā€œI think that there is enough, at least from what I understand and from my personal experiences, being done regarding it.ā€

But Raonic was equally keen to see any potenital corruption eradicated from the ā€œbeautifulā€ sport of tennis.

ā€œI don’t think anybody in tennis believes and stands for it. If the story has any validity to it, I hope the people that may be weeded out,ā€ he said.

ā€œTennis is a beautiful game. There are many great things about it.

ā€œIt’s a little bit, sorry for the language, shitty to read that and the attention … is more on that than the Australian Open, which is one of the four biggest events we play.ā€

Former US star Andy Roddick took to Twitter to have his say on the ongoing match-fixing scandal, claiming he was never approached to fix a match throughout his match.

Roddick said he had received a text from an unnamed former tour pro who believed they could guess ā€œat least eight or nineā€ of the 16 players suspected of being involved.

Roddick went on to state that world number three Roger Federer was ā€œno chanceā€ to be involved, but that in the age of social media ā€œsecrets don’t existā€.

He also said that any player who did accept money to fix a game was ā€œwithout a moral compassā€.

-with ABC/AAP

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