Lucas Pouille Reveals he Was Offered Bribe to Lose

After defeating Maximilian Marterer to reach the Australian Open third round, Lucas Pouille revealed he once got approached from people for match-fixing. ‘It’s very easy to go and betz it’s anonymous, and even more in the Eastern countries’, said Pouille in an interview to RMC Sport.

‘I played in Romanian Challengers where there was a group of 4-5 people who supported me like crazy and then the day after they were against me because they has made a bet.’ Pouille was offered money through Facebook and social media.

‘I never replied, it’s not worth, it was forgotten. I find ridiculous to sell your matches or accept to lose a set for the money. You have to work, just like all the other players did, to raise the rankings. I can tell myself that these players need money to travel and when they get offered €5,000 to lose a match while they can earn €1,000 by winning the title, I think it’s difficult for them to say not, a player like Guillermo Olaso got a five-year ban, well done to them.’

Pouille said he is in favour of eliminating bets in some tournaments. ‘There is so much money generated by bets, I think it’s very complicated to figure out, but we could remove bets on Futures.’

This isn’t the first time a player has been close to a betting ring. At least 28 professional tennis players were linked to an international organised group accused of fixing matches.

Authorities said the players tainted results after taking bribes from an Armenian ring that was dismantled in October.

Fifteen people were arrested at the time, including some of the tennis players.

Eleven houses were raided and police seized luxury vehicles, a shotgun, credit cards, and 167,000 euros ($267,000) in cash.

Another player who was pulled up for match-fixing was Italy’s Marco Cecchinato who was banned for two years.