Former World No. 8 & Tsitsipas Coach Philippoussis Fined & Handed Suspended Ban

Wednesday, 26 July 2023 at 21:25

Updated at Saturday, 29 July 2023 at 11:08

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byEvita Mueller

Former coach of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Mark Philippoussis, was fined and handed a suspended ban from the sport after promoting a betting platform.

The former player has been a pretty prominent face on the ATP Tour since his playing days. Even today, Philippoussis regularly takes part in the Legend's events as he just played at Wimbledon recently. While spending most of his time in his native Australia, Philippoussis was coaching Tsitsipas for a while though they parted ways earlier this year.

The coach was credited with improving the grass play of Tsitsipas as well as making improvements on his serve; the serve was a major weapon of his own tennis. Philippoussis is an accredited coach, which means he's subjected to the rules of the sport, including those related to betting.

The rules clearly state that “No Covered Person shall directly or indirectly, facilitate, encourage and/or promote Tennis Betting (‘Facilitation’).” Philippoussis provided his voice for promotional content for a gaming operator which was in breach of the rules.

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The former player cooperated fully with the ITIA (The International Tennis Integrity Agency) and didn't contest the charge. As a consequence of his actions, Philippoussis was fined $10,000 and given a suspended ban of four months which won't come into effect unless he breaches some other rule in the coming four months.

So basically it's just a slap on the wrist for Philippoussis who will have to play nice for the next four months and that's it. It's a far better fate compared to Mikael Ymer who was banned for 18 months recently, a punishment which was deemed too harsh by many in the sport.

Philippoussis was last seen coaching during the Berlin event where he was spotted working with Maria Sakkari just a short time after parting ways with Stefanos Tsitsipas. It's unclear if they plan to go ahead with that cooperation.