The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has confirmed the provisional suspensions of three professional athletes. According to the announcement, Timur Khabibulin, Sanjar Fayziev and Igor Smilansky breached the codes of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) by trying to manipulate the outcomes of games.

The players in question will remain provisionally suspended until their official sanctions have been considered. The decision was made by Janie Soublière, an anti-corruption hearing officer.

The ITIA justified its provisional suspension with the following rule outlined in the TACP:

In the event that the Covered Person is found liable of one or more of the charges against them and sanction is not determined at the same time as the decision on liability, the AHO, either of the AHO’s own volition or on an application by the ITIA, must impose a Provisional Suspension pending the final decision on sanction.

TACP excerpt

As of July 25, the trio can no longer compete or attend any sanctioned sports event organized or recognized by the tennis governing bodies.

The Players Violated the TACP on Multiple Occasions

The ITIA reported that the Khabibulin, Fayziev and Smilansky have career peaks of 753, 253 and 451, respectively.

According to Soublière, the Kazakhstan-born Khabibulin violated the TACP 18 times between 2014 and 2018. The Uzbekistani athlete Fayziev and the Israeli athlete Smilansky, on the other hand, committed 5 and 3 breaches of the TACP, respectively, in collaboration with Khabibulin.

The three players conspired together to contrive aspects of matches for wagering gain. They also failed to report corrupt approaches. In addition, Khabibulin offered money to other players to influence their performance.

ITIA Continues to Crack Down on Fraud

The ITIA is an independent body founded by the International Governing Bodies of Tennis that seeks to identify and protect the sport from fraud and manipulation.

The body recently banned the Bolivian umpire Percy Flores over similar violations of the TACP. The umpire will be excluded from the sport for 12 whole years.

Prior to that, the ITIA teamed up with the ITF to launch mandatory integrity education for players with an active Juniors International Player Identification Number. The program seeks to teach players about the nature of fraud, its nature and its consequences.

In July, the body also sanctioned Mark Philippoussis over violations of the sponsorship rules in professional tennis. The Australian coach had participated in a voiceover where he promoted a gambling operator’s products.

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The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced the suspension of Percy Flores, a tennis white badge umpire from Bolivia. Flores will be excluded from the sport for 12 years over violations of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).

The tennis authority learned that Flores had breached the TACP a whopping 31 times between November 2021 and October 2022. During ITF World Tennis Tour events, the umpire manipulated outcomes for betting purposes by purposely entering the wrong score into the umpire’s handheld device. In addition, he solicited another tennis official to engage in corrupt conduct, the ITIA remarked.

As a result, the umpire got handed a 12-year suspension and a fine of $15,000. Flores’ breaches, anti-corruption hearing officer professor Richard McLaren said, warranted a suspension of 15 years. However, various mitigating factors, such as Flores’ good conduct and admission resulted in the suspension getting reduced.

The suspension was backdated to the start of the umpire’s provisional suspension on December 8, last year. The penalty is thus set to expire on December 7, 2034. During that time, Flores will be prohibited from officiating at or attending any event that is authorized or sanctioned by the official tennis governing bodies.

Flores’ penalty follows the sanctioning of Mark Philippoussis who breached the rules on betting sponsorships in Tennis. Earlier, the organization issued lifetime bans to Nastja Kolar and Alexandra Riley who breached the TACP on multiple occasions.

A Breakdown of Flores’ Violations

As mentioned, Flores committed a total of 31 breaches. Notably, as a covered person, he committed 10 counts of directly or indirectly facilitating or encouraging tennis betting.

In addition, the ITIA reported that Flores committed 8 counts of purposefully delaying or manipulating scoring data for profit.

The umpire also committed 10 counts of being requested to influence or attempt to influence an event. Furthermore, Flores was found guilty of one count of not reporting suspicious activity by a covered person.

Finally, the umpire, as a covered person, was found guilty of incentivizing another person to commit, attempt or conspire to commit an offense.

To protect tennis from fraud, the ITIA just teamed up with the International Tennis Federation to launch mandatory integrity education for players with an active Juniors International Player Identification Number.

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