Nadal confident his sport is free from match-fixing

By Nazvi Careem

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - World number two Rafael Nadal joined Roger Federer on Wednesday in playing down the threat posed by match-fixing, saying tennis was 100 percent clean.

The men's game has been hit by a series of allegations about match-fixing in recent months, with a number of players saying they had been offered money to throw matches. They all said they had rebuffed the offers.

When asked if he thought the issue had been blown out of proportion, Nadal told Reuters: "Totally agree. I'm sure everything is 100 percent clean."

His thoughts echoed those of world number one Federer, who said after winning the Masters Cup in Shanghai on Sunday: "It's a great sport. It's a clean sport and I hope that in the future it's going to stay this way."

Matches on the men's ATP tour have been under scrutiny since August when a clash between world number four Nikolay Davydenko and lowly-ranked Martin Vassallo Argeullo was voided by British betting exchange Betfair because of unusual betting patterns.

Davydenko, who retired hurt from the contest, denies any wrongdoing.

Last week, the ATP suspended Italy's 124th-ranked Alessio Di Mauro for nine months and fined him $60,000 because he bet on tennis, even though he did not try to influence matches.

Federer is in the Malaysian capital for a series of exhibition matches against American Pete Sampras, who said the sport's image was being damaged by the talk of match-fixing.