TIU – Tennis Integrity Unit has suspended two officials for being found guilty in corrupt practices. The officials include are:
- Alexey Izotov, the national tennis umpire from Belarus. He has been suspended for 3 years from officiating in any professional tennis matches and also fined US$10,000. In November 2019, Alexey was found guilty after failing to report a corrupt approach and soliciting other officials to manipulate match scores. This was while he was officiating as a chair umpire at a W25 ITF Women’s event in Minsk, Belarus. The approach offered Alexey payment in return for delaying the inputting of scores to his PDA device, to facilitate other parties to bet on matches. Besides failing to report the approach, he subsequently made a similar offer to other officials.
- Antonis Kalaitzakis a Greek tournament director has been suspended for 20 months and fined US$ 6,000. This is after he admitted to betting on tennis and failing to report knowledge of, or suspicion of corruption, to the TIU-Tennis Integrity Unit. Four months of the suspension and $3,000 of the fine are suspended on condition that no further breaches of the TACP-Tennis Anti-Corruption Program are committed. TIU investigation established that Mr. Antonis held online betting accounts through which he placed 127 wagers on tennis between 2013 and 2016. This was in breach of the explicit prohibition on any form of betting on tennis contained in the TACP.
