The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has sanctioned five tennis players related to a match-fixing syndicate orchestrated by a prominent ringleader, Grigor Sargsyan.
Sargsyan, an Armenian immigrant who lived in Belgium, was recently captured in Brussels after a SWAT team broke into his parents' house. Following investigations, he has been sentenced to a Belgian jail for up to five years.
The ITIA has concluded its own investigation of five players having close links with the Sargysan - nicknamed the "Maestro" due to the meticulous ways in which he infiltrated the sport - and has sanctioned each one of them.
Because none of the players contested the charges either at all or within the time limit set by the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP), the sanctions will therefore be backdated and begin on September 30, 2023. All five players hail from Latin America, with five of them being Mexicans.
Alberto Rojas Maldonado, from Mexico, has been ordered to pay a hefty fine to the tune of $250,000, having committed a whopping 92 breaches of the TACP - the second-highest violations by a single individual. Maldonado, who achieved a career-high ranking of 992 in 2015, has also been given a lifetime ban from the sport.
Christopher Díaz Figueroa, the only non-Mexican on the list, is from Guatemala and who has previously served a three-year suspension from the sport for match-fixing. It looks like he has not learned his lesson, and the punishment this time is severe. Like Maldonado, he has been banned for life.
Figueroa has also been fined $75,000 for 13 further TACP breaches, including facilitation of wagering. He was ranked as high as No. 326 on the ATP Tour. José Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez is the third player and of Mexican origin. He has been suspended for 12 years and required to pay a fine of $25,001.
Antonio Ruiz Rosales was ranked as high as 652 in 2008. He will serve a suspension of up to 10 years and be fined $30,000 for seven breaches of the TACP, while Orlando Alcántara Rangel, last on the list, has been suspended for two years - the most fortunate man in the group. He will also part ways with $10,000 as a fine.
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