Tennis bosses to examine Tunisian withdrawal against Israeli
The ATP have said they are to investigate a Tunisian tennis player who retired from a match, meaning he didn’t have to play an Israeli in the next round.
Malek Jaziri had won the first set of his match against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the first round of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, though then claimed he was injured which meant he had to retire from the match and not face Dudi Sela in the second round.
Not the first time the player has been caught up in similar controversy, in 2013, Tunisia’s tennis federation ordered him to withdraw from a match against Amir Weintraub, whom he was due to face in the quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger tournament in Tashkent. As a result, the ITF banned Tunisia from the 2014 Davis Cup, saying they were guilty of “interfering with international sporting practice.”
The ATP confirmed that Jaziri’s latest retirement was due to an elbow injury, “as verified by the ATP physiotherapist on-site,” but have since started to examine the case. A statement released by the ATP said: “Given a previous incident involving the player’s national federation in 2013, we are looking into any wider circumstances of his withdrawal as a matter of prudence.
Jaziri also withdrew from the doubles competition, where he and Spaniard Marc Lopez, were due to play Israeli Jonathan Erlich and Czech Cermak Frantisek in the quarter-finals.
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