Facts and statistics indicate fixing at the very top of men’s tennis
byKatarina Pijetlovic, LL.B, LL.M, LL.Lic. LL.D cand.
katarina.pijetlovic@ttu.ee
EU and sports law academic

Facts and statistics strongly indicate that draws at the Grand Slam tournaments 2008-2011 might have been fixedat the very top of men's tennis. Namely, in 12 out of 12 Grand Slam tournaments played on hard and grass courts
between 2008-2011, Federer and Djokovic were always drawn to the same half of the draw, while Nadal andMurray were drawn to the other half. In addition, in five of those 12 tournaments Murray was not among the first
four seeded players, so his draw was conducted separately five times. Thus, the statistics are as follows: to get thesame result 12 out of 12 times, probability is 1 in 4096. For the case of Murray's separate draws which produced
the same result 5 out of 5 times, it is 1 in 32. THEREFORE, THE PROBABILITY TO OBTAIN DRAW RESULTS AS
OBTAINED AT THE 12 GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENTS IS 131072 TO 1 (4096 x 32 = 131072). Combined with thestudy conducted by ESPN on the draws of unseeded players at US Open it reaches 1 in many BILLIONS.

FACEBOOK PAGE ON THIS ISSUE WITH MORE DETAILS AVAILABLE AT http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tennis‐
biggest‐public‐secret/284730451547505?sk=wall

DRAWING PROCEDURE
In general, at the Grand Slam tournaments players are entered in the draw sheet based on their current standingon the ATP rank list. There are 128 players in the Grand Slams: 32 seeded players and 96 unseeded players. The
first seed is placed on line 1, while the second seed is placed on line 128 at the very bottom of the draw sheet.
This ensures that the two best players cannot meet before the finals. Thereafter, 3rd and 4th seeded player are
hand‐drawn from the cup: the first drawn is placed on the line 33 and the second drawn is placed on the line 96 in
the draw‐sheet. This way the best four players cannot meet each other before semi‐finals. The names of 5th, 6th,
7th and 8th seeded players are then placed into the cup and hand‐drawn to fill places on lines 32, 64, 65, and 97
in the draw. Similarly, 4 more groups of seeded players are drawn and placed on their predetermined line in thedraw‐sheet. Any seeded player has 50% of the chance to be drawn in first seeded player’s half of the draw, andcorresponding 50% to be drawn in part with second seeded player.
For unseeded players the computer programme randomly selects the names to fill in 96 remaining vacant places.
For details concerning the draws see p. 25 of the Grand Slam Rulebook 2011
http://beta.itftennis.com/media/64108/64108.pdf
BACKGROUND AND FACTS ABOUT 4 TOP PLAYERS
1. For many years, the first two spots on the ATP rank list shifted between Roger Federer known as a hard andgrass court specialist and Rafael Nadal known as clay court specialist. The two players held a virtual duopoly overmen’s tennis.
2. Both are sponsored by Nike, and are the most popular players on the planet with the massive fan baseunmatched by any other player.
Fan base on the Facebook:Federer ‐ 9 million
Nadal ‐ 8.5 million
Djokovic ‐ 1.3 million
Murray ‐ 450.000
Majority of the tennis fans across the world, tournament organizers, and players' sponsors, each for different
reasons, wanted to see Federer and Nadal clash in finals.
3. In 2007 Novak Djokovic rose to No. 3 and a year later, in the end of 2008, Andy Murray rose to No. 4 tothreaten the dominant duo.

4. General results of all the tournaments:● Nadal‐Murray: 13:4
● Federer‐Murray: 6:8● Nadal‐Djokovic: 16:14● Federer‐Djokovic: 14:10
5. Results of mutual clashes on hard and grass courts before 2008 season are as follows:● Nadal‐Murray: 2:0● Federer‐Murray: 1:1● Nadal‐Djokovic: 3:2● Federer‐Djokovic: 4:1‐ In their first match in 2005 Federer won Murraybut back then Murray was not even among top 100 in the world.
In their second match, Murray ranked 31 won Federer in 2006, the best year of Federer’s career in which he lost
only to one other player: Nadal. In 2007 a fast progressing Murray had not had a chance to meet Federer on any
tournaments, but he beat him again on their next encounter one and a half year later in 2008. At the same time,
Murray lost to Nadal in first five encounters, two of which were before 2008 season.
‐ Djokovic was equal opponent to Nadal on hard and grass courts from the start, and today he is leading 11:7
against Nadal on those surfaces. But it is clear Djokovic was most likely to lose to Federer on that surface looking
at 4:1 result from before 2008. Today Federer is still in lead 11:9 – of these 20 matches, four last matches on hardcourt were won by Djokovic in his run in 2011 which took everyone by surprise.
RESULTS OF THE DRAWS 2008‐2011
Australian Open

Roland GarrosWimbledon

2011

1st seed NADAL
2nd seed FEDERER
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
5th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF

1st seed NADAL
2nd seed DJOKOVIC
3rd seed FEDERER
4th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY IN
NADAL’s HALF

1st seed NADAL
2nd seed DJOKOVIC
3rd seed FEDERER
4th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF

2010

1st seed FEDERER
2nd seed NADAL
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
5th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF

1st seed FEDERER
2nd seed NADAL
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
4th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
MURRAY IN FEDERER’s
HALF; DJOKOVIC IN
NADAL’s HALF

2009

1st seed NADAL
2nd seed FEDERER
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
4th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF

1st seed NADAL
2nd seed FEDERER
3rd seed MURRAY
4th seed DJOKOVIC
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY INNADAL’s HALF

2008

1st seed FEDERER
2nd seed NADAL
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
9th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF

1st seed FEDERER
2nd seed NADAL
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
10th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
BOTH DJOKOVIC ANDMURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF (let’s not forget here
who is “king of clay”)

US Open

1st seed DJOKOVIC
2nd seed NADAL
3rd seed FEDERER
4th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN
FEDERER’s HALF;
MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF
1st seed NADAL1st seed FEDERER
2nd seed NADAL
2nd seed FEDERERrd
3 seed DJOKOVIC
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
th4 seed MURRAY
4th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
DJOKOVIC IN
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s FEDERER’s HALF;
HALF
MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF
1st seed FEDERER
1st seed NADAL (withdrew)
2nd seed MURRAY
2nd seed FEDERERrd
3 seed MURRAY
3rd seed NADAL
4th seed DJOKOVIC
4th seed DJOKOVIC
Result of the draw:
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
DJOKOVIC IN
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s FEDERER’s HALF;
HALF (Nadal withdrew due toMURRAY IN NADAL’sinjury but this is irrelevant in this HALFcontext)
1st seed FEDERER
1st seed NADAL
2nd seed NADAL
2nd seed FEDERERrd
3 seed DJOKOVIC
3rd seed DJOKOVIC
12th seed MURRAY
6th seed MURRAY
Result of the draw:
Result of the draw:
DJOKOVIC IN FEDERER’s
DJOKOVIC IN
HALF; MURRAY IN NADAL’s FEDERER’s HALF;
HALF
MURRAY IN NADAL’s
HALF

Very curiously, since the beginning of 2008 in each and every of 12 Grand Slams played on hard and grass courts(i.e., four of each, Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon), Djokovic was placed in Federer’s half on the draw,and Murray in Nadal’s half of the draw! In US Open 2009 and 2011, and Wimbledon 2011 Federer and Murray did
not even have a chance to be in the same part of the draw as they were 1st and 2nd seeds (US Open 2009) or 3rdand 4th seeds (US Open 2011 and Wimbledon 2011). But on those three occasions Nadal and Federer wereplaced in the separate part of the draw sheet when each and every of those times there was 50% chance toobtain that result. With Djokovic and Murray in less favorable parts of the draw the likelihood of the desired finals
between Nadal and Federer increases.
INCREDIBLE STATISTICS
Any seeded player has 50% of the chance to be drawn in first seeded player’s half of the draw, and corresponding
50% to be drawn in part with second seeded player. Under the laws of probability having the draw of 3rd and 4th
seeded players have identical outcome (i.e., Djokovic always in Federer’s half, and Nadal always in Murray’s half)in 12 out of 12 times is 1 in 4096, or 0.02%. But Murray was not among 4 first seeded players at 5 of those 12tournaments (Australian Open 2008, 2010, 2011, Wimbledon 2008, and US Open 2008). This means he was drawn
in the separate group with other seeded players ‐ in each and every of those 5 separate draws he was placed in
Nadal’s half! The same result in 5 out of 5 draws can happen is 1 in 32. 4096 multiplied with 32 is 131072. THE
PROBABILITY TO OBTAIN THE RESULTS AS WE SAW IN HARD AND GRASS COURT GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENTS
2008‐2011 IS 131072 TO 1. If you wanted to arrive at the result of draws achieved at the Grand Slams from 2008
to 2011, you would have to conduct 131072 draws to get the same result only once. It would take you conducting
17 draws every single day for 359 years!
A CASE OF ROLAND GARROS (the only clay court Slam)
Results on ALL clay tournaments are as follows: Murray never played Federer on any clay court tournament.
Nadal leads 4:0 against Murray on clay. Nadal was likely to win whomever he got on clay, Djokovic or Murray.
Djokovic played 11 matches on clay with Nadal of which he lost 9 first matches. Federer vs. Djokovic on clay ‐ 3:1.
Federer was likely to win on clay against Djokovic.
2. Results of Roland Garros draws 2008‐2011
As regards this surface is was less important where Djokovic is placed in the draw, whether with Nadal or Federer.
What was important is to keep Murray out of the way of Federer – and it happened in 3 out of 4 Roland Garros
tournaments.
● 2008 ‐ Murray was ranked 10th and was drawn in the part with Nadal. Djokovic was drawn separately andwas also drawn in Nadal’s part.
● 2010 ‐ might appear as the only odd year in the entire story. This is the only year where Murray wasplaced in Federers half. Djokovic automatically was placed with Nadal as he and Murray were 3rd and 4thseeds. However, if you look at the Murray’s opponents on the road to semi‐finals anybody knowing tennis
would be able to predict he was not going to make it that far. And he did not. Some even questioned hisability to get passed Gasquet in the first round ‐ he barely made it coming back from two sets down.
NB! This tournament was not taken into account for the purposes of statistics due to the changed relative strengthof players and the need to take into account qualitative aspects, but it does not mean that it is excluded from thepossible fixing.
CONNECTION TO ESPN RESEARCH
Recent research conducted by ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” demonstrated that computer‐generated part of thedraw at US Open which supposed to randomly distribute the unseeded players in the draw sheet has likely been
rigged for the past ten years to ensure that the top 2 players face the easiest possible opponents in the firstround. “It is still possible though…in sport just like in life anomalies can happen” said Chris Widmaier of US Tennis
Association. But statistical analysis conducted by Dr. Andrew Swift produced as easy opponents in the first roundin only 4 out of million simulations! "By itself, the U.S. [Open] numbers are weird," he said. "And then they'realso weird in comparison to the other three Grand Slams. So you've got a double argument of weirdness here.
Something weird is going on."

Full story available here http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/6854000/how‐espn‐lines‐analyzed‐us‐open‐tennis‐
tournament‐draw…and here http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/6850893/espn‐analysis‐finds‐top‐seeds‐tennis‐us‐open‐had‐easier‐draw‐
statistically‐likely
ESPN’s short video illustration at http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6861149&categoryid=2378529

CONCLUSION
The probability that the two incredible coincidences (i.e., hand‐draws of seeded players at the three Grand Slams,
and the computer generated draws of unseeded players at the US Open) might happen simultaneously is 1 in ca.
32 BILLIONS. These figures are a strong indicator of fixing and merit detailed investigation.