Three of the biggest scandals in tennis ever
Unlike some sports out there, tennis is not really famous for its scandals. In fact, this is often considered to be one of the most mature sports in the world, which is why you can often find loads of celebrities attending different big tournaments.
However, since this also happens to be one of the oldest sports out there, we’ve had many situations over the years that have put the integrity of this sport at risk. Fortunately, they are all done and dusted, but it’s still a good idea to check them out, just to know what happened.
The controversy around Venus and Serena Williams at Indian Wells
Everyone who follows this beautiful spot knows these two names. The Williams sisters are one of the most legendary female tennis players of all time that have won pretty much everything in this sport.
Although they have millions of fans from all over the world, they were both involved in a controversy that took place many years ago. During Indian Wells, which is a pretty big tennis event, the two sisters had to meet each other. Needless to say, this was going to be an intense matchup, which is why Venus decided to give up in favor of her sister.
The tennis community immediately started to blame Richard, who is the father of the two, for purposely influencing Venus’s decision. As a result, Serena was “booed” by the crowd, despite becoming the champion.
Match-fixing
Sadly, match-fixing is a problem that you can find in every big sport, including tennis. In 2019, two reputable news outlets reported that a German tennis player was supposedly involved in different betting scandals.
After numerous reports from some of the top bookmakers, which you can read more about on this website, it turned out that there were more than 130 people involved, which made this the biggest tennis match-fixing scandal ever.
The investigation showed shocking facts about how everything worked, and it turns out that many people made a pretty good living off this.
Maria Sharapova and her drug test
Of course, a big sport such as tennis will always have some sort of scandal that’s related to drugs. In this case, the person that’s involved is none other than Maria Sharapova, which is one of the best tennis players of all time.
Even though she won numerous tournaments, it turned out that she used a particular drug for nearly a decade, which is an awful lot of time in sports. As a result, she was banned for two years, but the ban was reduced drastically (15 months) just a few weeks later.
Chocking accident
When you head the word tennis, you probably don’t think of choking. However, one player by the name of Stefan Koubek lost it in 2010 when he decided to choke Daniel Koellerer after he made a bad comment about him.
Needless to say, the referee took immediate action and disqualified him. Even though what he did was not something that other players should follow, Koubek didn’t feel sorry for it.