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Yana Sizikova Arrested at 2021 French Open on Suspicion of Match-Fixing

Jun. 4, 2021
Yana Sizikova Arrested at 2021 French Open on Suspicion of Match-Fixing

Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova was arrested after her first-round doubles match at the 2021 French Open following an investigation into alleged match-fixing at last year's tournament.

Matthew Cooper of the Daily Mirror reported Friday the French Tennis Federation confirmed the arrest after a probe into last year's straight-sets loss by Sizikova and American Madison Brengle to the Romanian tandem of Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig. There have been no reports of Brengle being arrested or charged.

"We have not received any documents [regarding the case], so it's difficult to make an assessment of what has happened," Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpishchev told RIA Novosti (via Cooper).

In October, Ibrahim Naber of Die Welt reported investigators were alerted of potential fraud in the fifth game of the second set during the Sept. 30 match, which saw Sizikova serve two double faults.

The match was flagged by betting companies that deemed activity on the match suspicious, and an investigation was launched into potential "organized gang fraud" and "active and passive sports corruption," according to Cooper.

Sizikova returned to Roland Garros for this year's doubles tournament. She paired with fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in a lopsided loss (6-1, 6-1) Thursday to the Australian duo of Storm Sanders and Ajla Tomljanovic, and she was taken into custody after the match.

No further details about the match-fixing probe were immediately released.

Sizikova, a 26-year-old Moscow native, has spent most of her career on the ITF Women's Tour, winning 43 doubles titles, but she's also captured one WTA Tour doubles titleā€”the 2019 Swiss Open alongside Anastasia Potapova.

She's never advanced beyond the first round of a Grand Slam tournament.


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