Dubai: Mahesh Bhupathi, the Indian doubles ace and Managing Director of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), joined the chorus of stars who felt that the media reports on match-fixing in the sport count for nothing unless backed by more documentary evidence.

“I don’t believe it’s true till someone shows some hard proof, it’s all speculation just now,” Bhupathi told Gulf News to an email query from Melbourne, where he kick-started his campaign to add another doubles slam title to his glittering CV in Australian Open on a winning note.

Bhupathi, who has teamed up with Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, beat the Australian team of Alex Bolt and Andrew Whittington 7-6 (4) 3-6 6-4 in his tournament-opener at court seven.

It was Bhupathi’s only third competitive event since bowing out of 2015 Wimbledon championships.

He had missed the entire second half of the last year as he was busy with the conduct of second edition of IPTL.

He had played at the Chennai Open and then at a Challenger tournament in Thailand, where he reached the semifinals with compatriot Purav Raja.

Bhupathi’s compatriot, the 42-year-old Leander Paes, however, made an exit with French partner Jeremy Chardy after losing his first round 3-6 4-6 to Colombian 12th seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

Players, commentators and fans around the world echoed the call of Roger Federer, who wants to know names of those suspected of match-fixing in a growing scandal that one ex-pro described as a “major wake-up call for the world of tennis.”

‘Right to know’

Many called for clarity, saying the public and players have a right to know who is suspected of cheating.

Others warned that the match-fixing scandal has the potential to damage the reputation of tennis, just like doping or corruption scandals have hurt professional cycling, athletics, baseball and football.

Martina Navratilova, the 18-time Grand Slam champion, tweeted: “We need facts, not suppositions.”

The scandal broke on Monday when the BBC and BuzzFeed News published reports — timed for the start of the Australian Open — alleging that tennis authorities have ignored widespread evidence of match-fixing involving 16 tennis players, who have ranked in the top 50 over the past decade.

BuzzFeed titled its story, “The Tennis Racket,” and said that half of those 16, including a Grand Slam winner, were at this year’s Australian Open.“This really casts a very dark shadow on our sport right now,” Mary Jo Fernandez said on ESPN, as part of a panel discussion yesterday on the controversy. “Hopefully, because the world is watching, something will be done about it. We need to flag who these players were,” said Fernandez, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, winner of two Grand Slam women’s doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals.

An ex-tennis player from South America has, meanwhile, told the BBC that match-fixing is commonplace and even some elite players are “a little bit dirty in some way”. He also claimed fixing is not just limited to lower-ranked professionals and is “a secret that everybody knows”.

The player, who requested anonymity, said tennis authorities “know who is doing it” but are unwilling to stop it. Federer was among the first to demand more information: “I would love to hear names,” the Swiss star said on Monday at a post-match news conference.

Referring specifically to the claim about a former Grand Slam winner, he asked, “Was it the player? Was it the support team? Who was it? Was it before? Was it a doubles player, a singles player? Which Slam? It’s so all over the place. It’s nonsense to answer something that is pure speculation.”

His comments have resonated with those who say not knowing leads to dangerous speculation. “This is turning into a witch hunt,” said Patrick McEnroe, a former French Open doubles champion and captain of the US Davis Cup team who was in Melbourne commentating.

“We knew in the tennis world this was happening at the lower levels of tennis — the equivalent of minor league baseball — now we’re hearing a little bit more,” McEnroe said. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. This is a major, major wake-up call for the world of tennis.”

During a break in commentating for ESPN, Christ Evert said the scandal had deeply affected her. “I have been so sad about this the last few days,” the 18-time Grand Slam winner said. “We as tennis players have always been so proud about the integrity of our sport.”

“Hopefully the truth will come out,” she said.

Andy Roddick thinks it will. The 2003 US Open winner tweeted that he and another retired pro have been engaged in a guessing game: “Text I got from another former Tour pro ‘we should see how many of the 16 betting guys we can name. I think I got at least 8-9.”

— with inputs from agencies