Tennis in recent times has been passing through a dark phase with reports of match-fixing in the most of prestigious of Grand Slams- Wimbledon- causing ripples across the sporting fraternity.
It is under these circumstances that one perhaps expects a sense of honesty to come from players and in former professional Nick Lindahl, one has seen an example been set.
The 27-year-old Sweden-born player-turned-coach has pleaded guilty to a single charge related to match fixing in an Australian court over a minor tournament match 3 years ago, the Guardian reports.
“Mr Lindahl advised two other people ... that he was going to tank the tennis match or lose the tennis match, and in providing that information to those people they were able to place bets to advantage themselves,” Prosecutor Kate Young told a Sydney Court.
The competition in question was Toowoomba Futures Tournament in September 2013, where Lindahl lost a match intentionally to a player ranked below him.
However, Lindahl pleaded not guilty to a second charge which concealed proof of match fixing while two other charges concerning personal financial gain were dropped by the prosecutors.
Troy Edwards, the lawyer for Lindahl, said that the timing of the case coming to court in he middle of the suspected match fixing in the ongoing Australian Open was unfortunate.
“The matter was set to be heard before Christmas but there was a sick barrister and Nick asked me to agree to a delay. And now it’s all kind of blown up in his face.”
