(Paris) The corruption investigation which targeted Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova, suspected of having fixed a match at Roland-Garros in 2020, was dismissed in April by French justice, AFP learned on Thursday from consistent sources.
This investigation was closed on April 11, the Paris prosecutor’s office “believing that criminal proceedings could not be initiated”, said his lawyer, Me Frédéric Belot, in a press release.
According to a source close to the case, the facts could not be clearly established by the investigation and the offense is therefore not sufficiently established.
“Ms. Sizikova, who has always maintained her innocence, is therefore definitely cleared of all suspicion,” said Me Belot, indicating that her client would participate in the 2023 edition of the Roland-Garros tournament.
The Russian, 28 and current 50th player in the world in the WTA doubles ranking, was suspected of having, during a doubles match of the 2020 edition of the tournament, willfully lost a game on which tens of thousands of euros had been wagered abroad.
She had been arrested in June 2021 within the grounds of Roland-Garros and placed in police custody and then released the next day without being prosecuted.
The investigation focused on the women’s doubles between Yana Sizikova and her American partner Madison Brengle against Romanians Andreea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig, on September 30, 2020, during the first round of the French tournament.
Suspicion focused particularly on the fifth game of the second inning. The Romanian duo had won a shutout after two gross double faults by the Russian, who was participating in the tournament for the first time. The Romanians, favorites, won in two sets of 7-6 and 6-4.
But “abnormally high” sums, of the order of “several tens of thousands of euros”, had been bet on the outcome of this game, a source familiar with the matter explained in October 2020.
