The Canadian made a dream start to his campaign in Melbourne, easing past Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round on Tuesday.
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But the year’s first grand slam has threatened to be overshadowed by a joint investigation by the BBC and Buzzfeed News alleging tennis authorities have failed to act upon repeated warnings regarding match-fixing, a claim the ATP rejects.
The reports surfaced just hours prior to the start of the Australian Open. Raonic said that was hard to take.
“Tennis is a beautiful (sport). There are many great things about it,” he said. “It’s a little bit, sorry for the language, s—ty to read that and sort of see that the attention of the first grand slam of the year is more on that than, I think, the Australian Open, which is one of the four biggest events we play.”
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Raonic said players were directed what to do if they encountered potential match-fixers. He hopes those allegedly involved leave the sport.
“As far as we are as players, we are told anything comes up of this sort, you bring it up to the right authorities,” he said.
“I believe there is a hotline that we have as an option really to confront if this does come up. I think that there is enough — at least from what I understand and from my personal experiences, there is enough being done regarding it.
“I don’t think anybody in tennis believes and stands for it.
“If the story has any validity to it, I hope the people that — who weren’t named, from what I understand — may be weeded out.”
