A Romanian tennis player named Petru-Alexandru Luncanu has been banned for 5 years from tennis due to match-fixing.
Due to the nature of still ongoing case surrounding Simona Halep, whenever there's a mention of a Romanian player and ITIA, fans immediately think about the former World No. 1. Thankfully, this story has nothing to do with Halep outside of the Romanian link.
The former number one isn't having a better tennis story than her compatriot Luncanu right now as she's now dealing with allegations. The second one left her stunned and many others as well. If proven guilty and it doesn't look very promising Halep might face a similar ruling as Luncanu.
Luncanu followed a couple of other former players in early retirement. His sentence is not as severe as he didn't get banned for life but rather 5 years of not playing for match-fixing. Luncanu who is 34 isn't likely to return to tennis following the expiration of that punishment.
He is a former world number 304 which he achieved a very long time ago in 2009. Besides the 5-year ban, Luncanu was also handed a $40,000 fine by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).
There have been a couple of recent bannings from the sport due to match-fixing as betting continues to permeate all areas of sports. It's a lucrative business and on the lower level of tennis things like this are not too uncommon. There have been some high-profile names like Aslan Karatsev accused of match-fixing but that was never proven to be anything more than an allegation.
Players are generally not the only culprits as December of last year saw the ITIA hand a ban on a tennis umpire who was found guilty of actually betting on tennis matches. He didn't just publicly bet on tennis matches but also on matches he umpired. In Luncanu's case, according to the ITIA, the Romanian player breached multiple sections, which are all listed below.
D.1.b. No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition. For the avoidance of doubt, to solicit or facilitate to wager shall include, but not be limited to: display of live tennis betting odds on a Covered Person website; writing articles for a tennis betting publication or website; conducting personal appearances for a tennis betting company or any other company or entity directly affiliated with a tennis betting company; and appearing in commercials encouraging others to bet on tennis.
D.1.d. No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive or attempt to contrive the outcome or any other aspect of any Event.
F.2.b. All Covered Persons must cooperate fully with investigations conducted by the ITIA including giving evidence at hearings, if requested. Even in the case where a Covered Person is represented by a legal counsel, the Covered Person is still personally responsible for ensuring that they cooperate fully with the investigation. The Covered Person shall be deemed not to have cooperated if the Covered Person’s legal counsel interferes with an ITIA investigation. A Covered Person’s failure to comply with any Demand, preserve evidence related to any Corruption Offense or otherwise cooperate fully with investigations conducted by the ITIA, may result in an adverse factual inference against the Covered Person in any matter referred to an AHO.
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