An investigation carried out by the BBC and Buzzfeed has claimed that a group of 16 players were repeatedly flagged up as suspicious to the sport’s governing bodies but have been allowed to continue playing unchecked.

Corruption has been reported before in the lower levels of tennis but the BBC and Buzzfeed allege all of the 16 players have ranked in the world’s top 50, including a number currently competing in the Australian Open  and the group included winners of Grand Slam titles.

British bookmaker William Hill was appointed as the "official betting partner" of this year's Australian Open and has advertisements at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

“I think it’s a little bit hypocritical, really," Murray said after winning his first round match against Germany's Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 today. 

"I don’t believe the players are allowed to be sponsored by betting companies but then the tournaments are.

"I don’t really understand how it all works.

"I think it’s a bit strange.”

William Hill, who are not implicated in the match-fixing allegations, claimed that having betting companies sponsoring major tournaments was not at the root of the crisis.

"Close partnerships between regulated and licensed betting operators like William Hill and sporting bodies are part of the solution to integrity issues, not part of the problem," William Hill's group director of security and community Bill South said.

"We have comprehensive information sharing agreements to inform the sport's integrity bodies, and for the sport to promote licensed operators is key to ensuring transparency.

"We are proud of our association with Tennis Australia and will continue to play our part in contributing to the integrity of tennis in conjunction with sports bodies and regulators."

According to research carried out in 2014 by the International Centre for Sport Security and Sorbonne University, tennis is the third most vulnerable international sport to betting-related fraud through match manipulation.

The 28-year-old Murray, a former winner of the US Open and Wimbledon and Olympic gold medal at London 2012, admitted he had known that match-fixing was a problem in tennis since he was a youngster but has never been approached himself.

“I’ve been aware of it since I was quite young and I think when people come with big sums of money when you’re at that age, some people can make mistakes," he said.

“I do think it’s important that from a younger age, players are better educated and made more aware of what they should do in those situations and how decisions like that can affect your career and affect your whole sport. Across all sports I don’t think that’s done particularly well.

"I just think it should be tennis that does a better job of explaining.

They [young players] shouldn’t have to read it in the press, you have to be proactive and go and speak to the players rather than them reading about it in the newspapers or listening to it on the TV or the radio.

"The more proactive you are in educating young players the better in matters like this.”