ITIA Sanctions Three Tennis Players For Match Fixing Including A Lifetime Ban

| by Nurein Ahmed

Match fixing in the lower tiers of professional tennis is an epidemic, and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has an antidote that is not particularly pleasant for the culprits.

On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, the ITIA completed its pending investigation and issued sanctions on three players who contrived to breach the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) from provisional suspensions in late July.

The players sanctioned are Timur Khabibulin, Sanjar Fayziev, and Igor Smilansky. The decision was taken by an independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO) who had initially held the ITIA charges against the three players for related match-fixing activity pending sanctions.

Timur Khabibulin bears the brunt of the heftiest penalty among the three and the worst possible sanction. He's been fined $60,000 and given a lifetime ban from the sport. Khabibulin is a 28-year-old Kazakhstani player who achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 154 in doubles. He was guilty of 21 individual charges relating to match-fixing from 2014 to 2019.

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Sanjar Fayziev from Uzbekistan, incidentally, had a career-high ranking of 154 in doubles. He's been fined $15,000 and banned for three years and six months. Fayzuev was liable for five breaches pertaining to two matches in 2018.

Igor Smilansky is a 28-year-old who hails from Israel. He attained a career-best ranking in singles of No. 451. Smilansky has been banned for two years and penalized in monetary terms equivalent to $4,000 (with $1,000 suspended). He was guilty of three charges related to one match five years ago.

Because Fayziev and Smilansky have already served provisional suspensions since July 25, 2023, the sanction period will be backdated to begin on those dates, and will serve suspensions until July 2026 and July 2025 respectively.

During the suspension period (in the case of Khabibulin, a lifetime ban) the aforementioned players are not permitted to play in or attend any tennis tournament sanctioned or approved by the tennis governing bodies who are members of the ITIA. These are the ATP, ITF, WTA, and all the Grand Slam tournaments.

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