Novak Djokovic has spoken out against the treatment of Marco Trungelliti after the Argentinian player was ostracized for reporting match fixing.
Marco Trungelliti recently opened up about the trouble he faced after he refused to accept an offer of $100,000 to fix a match in 2015. Instead, he reported the incident to the Tennis Integrity Unit, which resulted in an investigation and bans for three of his compatriots - Nicolas Kicker, Patricio Heras, and Federico Coria.
However, rather than receiving praise for his efforts to maintain integrity and fairness in the sport, Trungelliti found himself ostracized to the point that he was forced to leave his home country and move to Andorra with his family after they received threats.
In a recent interview with La Nacion, Trungelliti praised the World No. 1 and Canadian player Vasek Pospisil for setting up the Professional Tennis Players' Association (PTPA) to fight for and protect the rights of players.
"What Djokovic and Pospisil are doing also seems essential. I ran into Djokovic at the US Open and thanked him for what he's doing for the players," he said.
The Serbian player responded to this praise by thanking Trungelliti for his kind words and speaking out against his treatment by the tennis community in recent years.
"I saw what he said and I immediately told Charlie [Carlos Gómez-Herrera] to contact him and thank him for his kind words, since the two of them are in direct contact. Also, since I didn't know about his situation and what he was going through in the previous three or four years, I can say that I am very sorry for all of that.
"He did not deserve such treatment at all because he showed courage and audacity to protect the integrity of the sport by coming forward with the fact that someone had approached him and offered to cheat on matches for betting purposes. I greatly appreciate when someone has such an attitude because they are, in general, a minority," he said.
Most interesting to me: Djoković responded to the recent comments made by Marco Trungelliti. Novak asked his sparring partner, Carlos Gómez-Herrera, to reach out to the Argentine (as they’re in direct contact) and expressed respect for his courage and perseverance.
