Match-fixing: French tennis player receives heavy penalty

A severe ruling has been handed down by the ITIA regarding the 34-year-old French tennis player.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed that French player Samuel Bensoussan had his ban extended from 1 year and 11 months to 3 years, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reviewed appeals from both sides.

Earlier, Bensoussan was found to have violated tennis anti-corruption regulations by participating in match-fixing in several singles and doubles matches at lower-level tournaments. These actions were determined to be linked to a criminal network based in Belgium, which was accused of manipulating hundreds of matches worldwide.

After the initial ruling, the 34-year-old player appealed, hoping to have the penalty completely overturned. Conversely, the ITIA believed the punishment was not sufficiently deterrent and requested the CAS to increase the ban to six and a half years.

After consideration, a three-member CAS arbitration panel decided to raise the ban to three years. However, the court did not accept the ITIA's full request. The CAS also rejected the demand for Bensoussan to repay the 1,000 euros that investigators alleged he received for participating in fixing one of the suspected matches.

Samuel Bensoussan reached a career-high ranking of 405 in ATP in June 2018. Most of his career was spent in tournaments within the ITF and ATP Challenger, where prize money is low and players often face financial difficulties.

In its ruling, the CAS emphasized that Bensoussan's case was just one link in a large-scale investigation to dismantle a match-fixing ring run by a criminal organization in Belgium. According to the investigation results, this organization bribed at least 181 players worldwide and manipulated a minimum of 375 professional matches.

This ring was once the target of a criminal case in Belgium, and the mastermind was sentenced to five years in prison. The findings from the investigation have continued to serve as the basis for the ITIA to handle numerous violations over the years.