Tunisian’s withdrawal from tennis match being probed
Jaziri was set to meet an Israeli opponent in the next round had he won his first-round match.
The ATP is looking at the circumstances of a Tunisian tennis player’s retirement from a match after winning the first set in a French tournament, citing an injury that keeps him from facing an Israeli in the next round.
Malek Jaziri quit after winning the first set 6-3 against sixth-seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the first round of the Open Sud de France.
Tournament organisers said that Jaziri, who called for a trainer twice during the match, ‘suffered again from an elbow injury he picked up’ at the Australian Open.
Had Jaziri beaten Istomin, he would have played Israel’s Dudi Sela in the next round.
In 2013, Tunisia’s tennis federation had ordered Jaziri to withdraw from a match against an Israeli opponent at a second-tier tournament in Uzbekistan. Jaziri had been scheduled to play Israel’s Amir Weintraub in the quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger tournament in Tashkent. He withdrew before the match.
The ITF subsequently banned Tunisia from the 2014 Davis Cup, saying that the Tunisian federation was 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 started to examine the case.
The Tunisian tennis federation declined to comment when contacted by Al Jazeera.