Top 50 stars Karatsev, Basilashvili and their former coach allegedly involved in match-fixing

Prominent top 50 tennis stars, Aslan Karatsev and Nikoloz Basilashvili as well as their former coach Yahor Yatsyk are allegedly involved in matchfixing, an investigation by Markus Harm and Jannik Schneider for ZDF in Germany has found.

According to the investigation (thread below), they found that allegedly Yatsyk who has coached and travelled with both players has offered players money to matchfix on at least two occasions in the past with this information coming from secret investigation documents from the ITF.

In terms of the involvement of Karatsev who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open last season and has won three singles titles, the latest being in Sydney earlier this season - it hinges on two matches with unusually high betting patterns in Finland back in 2019 and another doubles in Kazakhstan back in 2020.

They were investigated by French police during the French Open back in 2020 which was reported by L'Equipe back in May and further info finds that he was involved during Stuttgart only recently.

His former girlfriend, Sofia Dmitrieva has been banned for life previously for match fixing. While for Basilashvili, proceedings are pending according to Russian media despite his management not knowing anything regarding this but his first round doubles game last year against Radu Albot at Wimbledon is under investigation.

This is due to high bets on the loss and amounts being staked of up to half a million dollars.

"Yatsyk has been involved in fixing for years, works with people who have to do with fixing in Russia/Eastern Europe. He always has a lot of money with him, is on tour and is searching for young players who have problems. Financial/mental. Players he can convince with money," an unnamed Eastern European coach told ZDF.

"Yatysk worked closely with Karatsev/Basilashvilli, watched them for years. Both incredibly talented players. But they had financial problems at beginning and major phases of weakness and slipped in the rankings. Each in a critical moment he approached them."