Double Break (episode 11): Is it "rien ne va plus" for the ITFs?

Double Break

This week Vanni Gibertini and Jacopo Lo Monaco try to understand if there is anyone who can beat Nadal on clay after his 11th title in Montecarlo (02:11). Novak Djokovic showed some signs of improvement in the Principality (11:45), although he has already lost in Barcelona and he doesn’t seem to be doing much better than when he came back in Australia. Another player whose shares are on the up is Grigor Dimitrov (18:28), who won a couple of tough matches in Montecarlo and won a good first round in Barcelona.
Last week it was Fed Cup week (20:25) with two semifinals in Europe and eight playoff matches to define the 16 teams for World Group I and World Group II in 2019. The final is going to be Czech Republic vs USA, in the Czech Republic, most likely in Prague.
In the playoff ties (23:40) Italy was defeated for the second time in two weeks in Genoa: 0-4 to Belgium and no promotion to Word Group I. Vanni was in Montreal for the dramatic Canada-Ukraine playoff (26:00) where the locals had to power through three injuries of their players to remain in World Group II.
In London the Independent Review Panel for the Integrity of the game released an Interim Report with the work carried out so far and some recommendations to fight match fixing in tennis (34:00). The main focus is on the lower level of ITF tournaments ($25k and below) where the vast majority of match fixing seems to be happening and the players in those tournaments should not be considered “professionals”. It is recommended that the ITF rescind its contract with Sportsradar for selling live scoring to betting companies for those tournaments, and ATP, WTA and Grand Slams tournaments should compensate the ITF for the financial loss.