Tiu Bans More Tennis Players

Ten cases in several TACP sections

A month after the suspension of the Bulgarian tennis brothers Karen and Yuri Khachatryan, the tennis integrity department TIU has made further judgments against several tennis professionals. This week, Algerian Aymen Ikhlef received a lifetime ban. The reason is the repeated disregard of the TACP rules. Hearing officer Richard McLaren led the investigation and found serious violations in ten cases in several areas.

Four cases relate to match-fixing. In two cases, Ikhlef urged other players not to give their best effort. In three other cases, the 25-year-old Algerian was found to have failed to report corruption. The last point TIU cited was a lack of willingness to cooperate with the investigation. According to McLaren, the player is guilty in all cases.

Ikhlef is not a world-famous tennis star; he celebrated his previous career high in 2015 when he reached number 1,739 in the ATP rankings. With the verdict, the player can no longer go up. The list of TACP policies that Ikhlef violated is long. During the course of the investigation, clear violations of Sections D.1.d, D.1.e, D.2.a.i and Section F.2.b were identified.

The sections are similar to the case of tennis professional Gerard Joseph Platero Rodriguez, who was banned at the beginning of October for betting fraud. They state that no player is allowed to manipulate game results. Additionally, players are not allowed to encourage other players not to do their best. Another section states that if a player is approached by a person offering money, benefits or consideration in relation to match-fixing, he must immediately report this to the TIU. In addition, all registered players are obliged to cooperate.

Seven suspensions in six weeks

The ban against Ikhlef is the seventh in just six weeks. In addition to the cases mentioned, at the end of last month the Bulgarian tennis player Aleksandrina Naydenova was banned for life, which represents a much bigger brand in tennis: the 28-year-old athlete is the winner of 14 titles from the International Tennis Federation (ITF), was ranked 89th in the ITF singles rankings and 218th in the WTA rankings.

However, between 2015 and 2019, Naydenova is said to have taken part in match-fixing activities on multiple occasions. She was also accused by the TIUIGT of not cooperating sufficiently, and in addition to the suspension, she received a fine of $150,000 (~£ 70). In total, the player was found to have committed 13 violations of the TACP. 12 of them related to match-fixing.

Sanction against linesman Rocher

At the beginning of December, the Spaniard Enrique López Pérez, who reached number 154 in the ATP singles ranking in 2018, was found guilty of triple match fixing. He received an eight-year ban and a $25,000 fine. Two weeks ago, the Ukrainian Stanislav Poplavskyy was banned for life and the Briton George Kennedy was sentenced to a seven-month ban and a fine.

The recent bans have not only affected players, but also officials. The 18-month ban and $5,000 fine against French linesman David Rocher caused a stir. According to TIU, the official had placed bets on tennis matches several times, which the TACP rules also prohibit. Rocher admitted to placing a total of 11 bets on games between January and November 2019. This was a clear violation of Section D.1.a of the TACP.

From November 2021, the TIU will be renamed ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency). It will continue to enforce betting integrity in tennis before adding the doping category to its responsibility from 2022.

IBIA: New data protection standards

As a report from Europol, the police agency of the European Union (EU), shows, illegal match-fixing has recently increased. Tennis in particular is a problem area in this context: In 2016, 11 games were manipulated, in 2017 there were an estimated 236, although this value fell slightly again to 191 by 2018.

In November, the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) also reported that the number of suspicious betting reports rose 52 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous year, with football and tennis accounting for two-thirds of the cases. These two sports each generated 25 reports, which together accounted for 66% of all cases recorded in the third quarter.

To address the situation, the IBIA had in October new standards for data protection enacted to help maintain the integrity of sport and bookmakers. A large part of this relates to the logging of business transactions and the traceability of the data sets that are made available to the betting providers. There is a general lack of transparency in both fields.