United States’ Nikita Kryvonos has been banned for 10 years and fined $20,000 after being found guilty of breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP), including match-fixing.
A Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) investigation established that the player colluded with third parties to contrive the outcome of a match at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger event in American city Champaign in Illinois in November 2015.
This coincided with suspicious betting activity in several countries on the match in question, a TIU statement says.
As a result of failing to supply his mobile phone records and other documentation requested, Kryvonos was also charged with failing to co-operate with a TIU investigation.
Following his failure to co-operate with the TIU, Kryvonos was provisionally suspended from playing professional tennis on November 30, 2015.
The 10-year suspension imposed today has therefore been backdated to include this period of exclusion.
It will expire on November 29, 2025.
During that period, Kryvonos is not allowed to compete in or attend any tournament or event organized or sanctioned by the governing bodies of the sport.
The case was considered by independent anti-corruption hearing officer Richard McLaren at a hearing held in London on April 27.
His decision and applicable sanctions were published today.
Kryvonos, 30, achieved a career-high singles ranking of 389 in 2007.
His most recent ranking was 931 in 2015.
The TIU is an initiative of the Grand Slam Board, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the ATP and the Women’s Tennis Association, who are said to be jointly committed to a zero tolerance approach to corruption in tennis.
Earlier this week, Japanese tennis player Junn Mitsuhashi was banned for life for match-fixing and gambling offences.
The 27-year-old, who reached a career high of 295 in the world in 2009, was also fined $50,000 by the TIU.
He was found guilty of making corrupt approaches to other players, betting on tennis matches and refusing to co-operate with a TIU investigation.
Tennis has faced significant match-fixing problems, particularly at levels where prize money is low.
It was the sport involved in 45 percent of reported cases of suspicious betting during the first quarter of 2017, according to the European Sport Security Association.
In March, ITF President David Haggerty announced plans for tours with a limit of 750 male and 750 female players.
It is thought that around 14,000 are currently competing among the full-time ranks, with nearly half of these failing to win any prize money.
This, it is thought, can cause some players to be tempted by corruption.
By Daniel Etchells
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.