A total of 73 matches were flagged as potentially suspicious to the TIU between April and June ©TIU

A total of 73 matches were flagged as potentially suspicious to the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) between April and June of this year, it was announced today.

The TIU, established in 2008, revealed two of these games were at Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour level, the highest level of men’s tennis behind Grand Slams.

Fourteen alerts were found at ATP Challenger tournaments, while 33 came from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Future’s level and 24 contests were also flagged in the ITF women’s competitions.

The TIU confirmed that no Grand Slam matches during the second quarter of this year were raised as containing any suspicious match-fixing activity.

A total of 30,353 professional matches were analysed from April to June, with the number of alerts representing 0.24 per cent of that figure.

The TIU has now received 121 alerts since January after 48 were flagged in the first quarter of this year.

They came as a result of Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with regulators and betting organisations.

Matches being flagged does not mean they have been fixed and an “alert on its own is not evidence of match-fixing”, according to the TIU.

The TIU is due to release the findings from the third quarter of 2016, which runs from July to September, in October.

The TIU will also be working closely with the International Olympic Committee during the tennis tournament at Rio 2016 ©Rio 2016
The TIU will also be working closely with the International Olympic Committee during the tennis tournament at Rio 2016 ©Rio 2016

The body, which is responsible for investigating any suspicion of match-fixing at all levels of tennis, also confirmed they would be working closely with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during Rio 2016.

They will have a presence throughout next month’s Olympic tennis tournament, which runs from August 6 to 14.

“TIU investigative staff will be on site for the duration of the event and the competition will be subject to the terms of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP), and the IOC anti-corruption code,” a TIU statement read.

Match-fixing remains one of the key issues for tennis, mainly due to the lack of prize money on offer outside of the sport’s top-level.

Bulgarian Danail Tarpov, the current world number 1,109, was suspended for three months and fined €5,000 (£4,200/$5,500) for a betting-related offence earlier this month.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last week heard the appeal of Greek tennis player Alexandros Jakupovic, who is appealing a lifetime ban from the sport handed down by the TIU in December.

Jakupovic, a former a member of the Greek Davis Cup team, appearing in 29 ties for his country, was found guilty on five counts of corruption.