Tennis professional unpacks: ‘There are players who live from betting and match manipulation’

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The fact that tennis players outside the top 100 are not financially comfortable has been a major topic of discussion for a long time. Many end up at just zero at the end of the year, while others even fall into negative territory.

One of them is Filip Peliwo. The Canadian-born has been playing for Poland since 2022, was number one among the juniors in 2012 and won the Wimbledon junior tournament and the US Open in the same year. Now he is in 463rd place and is struggling with money problems. “My account balance for this year is in the red,” the 29-year-old told Polish portal Sport.tvp.pl.

“I spent more than I earned,” Peliwo continued. He considers himself lucky that he had always saved something in advance so that he “didn’t panic”. Nevertheless: “If I get injured and no money comes in, I have to train other players or something so that I can still earn something.”

Match fixing as a lucrative financial injection

Peliwo believes that some of his fellow sufferers take a different, illegal route to get money: “I am convinced that there are tennis players who earn their living from betting and match fixing.” What he means by the latter: taking money from third parties in exchange for deliberately losing so that these people then win their sports bets.

“The players earn much more than they can earn at ITF tournaments. “Someone gives up his ambition and can make a living from it,” Peliwo explains. After all, it is human nature to take a shortcut every now and then.

It cannot be 100% established that someone loses on the field on purpose. He also emphasizes that he has no proof, but says: “You can tell when someone is behaving strangely.”

“Not mafia, but…”

He himself has never been approached directly for match fixing. However, when a British sports store wanted to work with him, an initial exchange revealed that this company was also involved in “match fixing”, ie game manipulation, and he was offered bets.

“I was told that a top 600 player earned between 3,000 and 5,000 euros per match.” However, he himself refused and immediately reported the matter. “I don’t want to say it’s a mafia, but these people are very well organized.”

Source : Blick