From Junior Slam Champion to Match-Fixing Scandal: Oliver Anderson Attempt to Escape Tennis

How a junior Slam champion match-fixed to escape tennis – and found his way back

The moment Oliver Anderson walked off court and locked eyes with undercover police officers, he knew his tennis career as he understood it was over.

The Australian had just been knocked out in the second round of an ATP Challenger event in Traralgon, but it wasn’t that defeat which raised alarm bells. It was the match before it – a strange, awkward three-set comeback win that looked wrong to anyone watching closely.

“Anyone who saw that match would’ve instantly thought something was up,” Anderson admits now, almost a decade later.

Back in January 2016, Anderson was living the dream. He lifted the Australian Open boys’ singles title on home soil, standing shoulder to shoulder with names who would soon become established stars of the men’s game: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur. At just 17, he was a junior Slam champion, heralded as one of Australia’s brightest prospects.

Nine months later, he was at the centre of a match-fixing investigation.

The junior Slam champion who match-fixed to escape tennis

Injuries had derailed Anderson’s momentum almost as soon as it began. Surgery kept him sidelined for months, cutting off income at a time when he was trying to survive on the lower rungs of professional tennis. The pressure built quietly, then suddenly.

In the days leading up to that Challenger event in regional Victoria, Anderson was contacted by a match-fixing syndicate – the type known for targeting young, financially vulnerable players grinding on the Futures and Challenger circuits.

“It all happened very quickly,” he recalls. “I was approached, decided it was doable, I’m doing it… then I’m walking off the court and I’m in serious trouble.”

The plan was simple: deliberately lose the first set, then play normally. On paper, it sounded harmless enough to a 19-year-old struggling to make ends meet.

The footage, however, tells a different story. Anderson, ranked 704th at the time, rolled in soft second serves, dumped routine returns into the net and made uncharacteristic errors that raised eyebrows almost immediately. His opponent, fellow Australian Harrison Lombe – ranked outside the top 1,500 – took the opening set as planned.

Then, as arranged, Anderson switched gears. He stormed back to win 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

Unbeknownst to him, betting companies had already flagged suspicious activity. According to reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a punter attempted to place A$10,000 on Lombe to win the first set, triggering alerts that eventually reached authorities.

Anderson insists he still doesn’t know exactly who tipped police off. What he does remember is the crushing weight of guilt that followed.

Guilt, regret and the end of an illusion

The following day, Anderson was emotionally spent. He was thrashed 6-2, 6-2 by John-Patrick Smith, barely able to focus.

“All I could think was, ‘This is absolutely nuts and there’s only me who knows what’s going on,’” he says.

Then came the confrontation. Undercover police approached him after the match. In that instant, the illusion of an easy escape from tennis collapsed.

“I knew I’d made an absolute blunder,” Anderson admits.

He never received any payment and co-operated fully with investigators. In May 2017, a magistrate in Victoria handed him a two-year good behaviour bond, allowing him to avoid a criminal conviction. Tennis authorities also took his co-operation into account, with the Tennis Integrity Unit ruling that the 19 months he had already served under provisional suspension was sufficient punishment.

Looking back, Anderson says the decision to match-fix wasn’t just about money. It was about wanting out.

Why escaping tennis felt easier than confronting it

Tennis had shaped Anderson’s life from childhood. He learned the game on local courts, progressed through Australia’s elite pathways and reached the summit of junior tennis. From the outside, it looked like a dream trajectory.

But inside, he felt conflicted.

“I wasn’t obsessed with tennis the way you probably need to be,” he says. “What I really wanted was to be in a rock ’n’ roll band.”

A fan of heavy, riff-driven British rock – Cream, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple – Anderson admits he felt trapped by expectations.

“In my head, agreeing to the match-fix felt like a seamless exit,” he explains. “Completely the wrong thing to do, obviously. But at the time, it felt like a way out.”

The consequences were confronting. Yet the experience forced him to grow up quickly.

“It made me mature very fast,” he says. “It was uncomfortable, but I learned a lot about myself.”

Crucially, he wasn’t abandoned. Family, friends and members of the Australian tennis community rallied around him during the darkest period of his life.

“I don’t know if I expected that level of support,” he says. “I was very fortunate.”

Life after the junior Slam champion match-fixing scandal

When his suspension ended, Anderson made a clean break from professional tennis. He swapped his racquet for a guitar and leaned into his creative instincts, though music alone wasn’t enough to pay the bills.

Fashion became his unlikely second act.

“My family’s been in textiles for generations,” he explains. “So I learned from them and eventually started doing my own thing.”

Today, Anderson runs a one-man resortwear business, designing and manufacturing clothing for independent retailers. He still plays music, gigging in “dingy bars” around Queensland with his band, content away from the relentless scrutiny of the tour.

For years, tennis barely crossed his mind. He picked up a racquet only a handful of times. Then, almost by accident, everything changed.

A surprise comeback and unfinished business

Around Christmas 2023, Anderson hit a few balls with his brother just to stay fit. The enjoyment surprised him. Soon, he was rallying with stronger players, then training at the Tennis Australia National Academy.

Head coach Brent Larkham liked what he saw. A wildcard followed. Anderson won two matches at a Futures event, earned ITF points and suddenly found himself back on the circuit he once tried so desperately to escape.

What followed felt like a tennis version of Race Across The World. Anderson travelled on a budget through Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Mozambique and Angola, signing into tournaments, chasing points and rediscovering the joy of competition.

In Angola, he even lifted a title.

Injuries, however, remain his old enemy. A quad tear has stalled his momentum once more, forcing him to reassess his future.

Still, there’s no bitterness now. Only perspective.

“I could finish tomorrow and I’d still say this comeback was a success,” Anderson reflects. “I met great people, went to amazing places, had battles, had good times and bad times.”

There’s still a quiet dream of Grand Slam qualifying, but no obsession.

“If I had to walk away right now,” he says, “I’d be happy knowing I played again – on my own terms.”

For a junior Slam champion who once match-fixed to escape tennis, that might be the most important victory of all.