New Delhi: Days after revealing he was indeed approached for match-fixing in the past, Novak Djokovic on Wednesday dismissed reports which claimed that he deliberately lost a match in 2007.
A report in Italian newspaper Tuttosport claimed that the Serbian had deliberately lost to now-retired French player Fabrice Santoro at the Paris Masters in 2007. Santoro had won that match 6-3, 6-2.
After his Australian Open second round win over French teenager Quentin Halys today, Djokovic was asked about the report.
"It's not true... What it is to say? I've lost that match," retorted the 28-year-old said.
"Anybody can create a story about that match or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds, I think it`s just absurd."
"You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost and just create a story out of it," the ten-time Major winner added.
On Monday, on the opening day of 2016's first Grand Slam tournament in Australia, the world-number one made the sensational revelation that "he was asked in 2007 to throw away a first-round match at St Petersburg."
Incidentally, the St Petersburg event happened month before the Paris Masters.
"I was not approached directly. I was approached through people that were working with me at that time," he added.
His comments came after BBC and BuzzFeed claimed that 16 players who had reached the top 50 in the past decade, including Grand Slam champions, had been repeatedly suspected of fixing matches for betting syndicates.
(With Agency inputs)
