Lleyton Hewitt: Retiring Australian legend calls match-fixing allegations 'a joke'

Melbourne: Australian tennis legend Lleyton Hewitt, who played his last match in a Grand Slam on Thursday, called the widespread suspected match-fixing claims in the sport as "a joke".

Soon after his second-round loss to David Ferrer in Australian Open on Thursday night, the former World No. 1 was asked about about leading players having to address the issue of match fixing during the tournament.

"I think it's a joke to deal with it," Hewitt said.

"I don't think anyone here would think that I've done anything corruption or match fixing. It's just absurd.

“For anyone that tries to go any further with it, then good luck. Take me on with it. Yeah, it's disappointing. I think throwing my name out there with it makes the whole thing an absolute farce.”

Earlier, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic called allegations of him throwing away a match in 2007 for money, "absurd".

"What is there to say? I've lost that match. I don't know if you're trying to create a story about that match or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds, I think it's just absurd," said Djokovic.

The match-fixing allgations have rocked the tennis fraternity ever since the BBC and BuzzFeed News claimed that 16 top players had repeatedly been suspected of involvement in fixed matches but never faced action.

Ever since the news broke, tennis authorities have denied all suggestions that evidence of corruption has been deliberately suppressed.