Committing a corruption double fault will cost Temur Ismailov his tennis career.

Uzbekistan player Ismailov and his compatriot, Amal Sultanbekov, have been banned from the sport, following an investigation into match fixing at a tournament in 2019, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced today.

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Ismailov, who reached a ATP career-high rank of No. 397, was already serving a seven year ban after a previous investigation. The investigation into the second match fixing case against Ismailov results in his lifetime ban starting July 21st, 2021, as well as a $14,000 fine.

Sultanbekov,, who attained a career-high ATP ranking of 1,886, has been banned for five years, from July 21st, 2021 to July 21, 2026, and has been fined $8,000.

The ITIA said in a statement both players were found guilty of three breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) rules:



D.1.k “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit, facilitate, or conspire to solicit or facilitate any other person to contrive, attempt to contrive or conspire to contrive the outcome or any other aspect of any Event.”

D.1.d “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive, attempt to contrive, agree to contrive, or conspire to contrive the outcome, or any other aspect, of any Event.”

D.2.a.i “In the event any Player is approached by any person who offers or provides any type of money, benefit or Consideration to a Player to (i) influence the outcome or any other aspect of any Event, or (ii) provide Inside Information, it shall be the Player’s obligation to report such incident to the TIU as soon as possible.”

In addition, Ismailov was found guilty of D.1.e. “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit, facilitate, or conspire to solicit or facilitate any Player to not use his or her best efforts in any Event.”

Photo credit: Christopher Levy