Russian player Yana Sizikova has been arrested at the French Open and has been placed into custody. The reasons for her arrest have not been given and the French Tennis Federation (FFT) said it could not comment further.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed to The Associated Press that a “women’s international player” was in custody, but it did not identify her. The player was arrested Thursday night on charges of “sports bribery and organised fraud for acts likely to have been committed in September 2020,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The investigation into Sizikova dates back to last year’s French Open and in particular a match in which Sizikova and her doubles partner at the time, Madison Brengle, lost to Romania’s Andrea Mitu and Patricia Maria Tig.
During that match, which took place on September 30, bookmakers raised concerns about suspicious betting activity, specifically around the fifth game of the second set, in which Sizikova’s serve was broken to love when she twice double faulted. Allegedly hundreds of thousands of Euros were wagered on that break of serve and on a Mitu-Tig victory.
Sizikova has not spoken publicly about the investigation and the Russian Tennis Federation previously said that they could not comment until official documents about the investigation were published.
In this year’s French Open, Sizikova and her doubles partner Ekaterina Alexandrova lost their first-round match on Thursday against Ajla Tomljanović and Storm Sanders of Australia.