Five tennis players were either banned or suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) due to their links to a Belgian match-fixing syndicate.
The ITIA announced the news on Friday, declaring that each of the players had committed corruption offenses in either 2017 or 2018. The offenders include Yannick Thivant, Thomas Brechemier, Gabriel Petit, Thomas Setodji, and Hugo Daubias.
spent years recruiting athletes for his scheme and became rich
The case is linked to Grigor Sargsyan, the man convicted of running a high-profile match-fixing syndicate with as many as 180 tennis players across five continents. He spent years recruiting athletes for his scheme and became rich by gambling on their matches. He received a five-year custodial sentence in 2023.
Thivant was the hardest hit out of the offenders, receiving a lifetime ban for his part in Sargsyan’s ploy. He fixed 22 matches, including 16 of his own. He also received a fine of $75,000.
As for the other men, Setodji was suspended for ten years and received a $20,000 fine, Brechemier was suspended for just over seven years, Petit for more than six years, and Daubias for two years. The latter fixed the least amount of matches at just two.
