By Tennis Now | @Tennis_Now | Friday, May 10, 2024
 
Fall-out from a criminal case centering on a match-fixing ring based in Belgium continues.

A pair of players have been hit with bans after being found guilty of committing corruption offenses, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced today.

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Alejandro Mendoza Crespo, a 34-year-old Bolivian who reached a career-high world singles ranking of No. 741 in 2016, was hit with a lifetime ban and fined $250,000 for committing 20 major offenses under the TACP.

Mendoza was found by Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Richard McLaren to have “engaged in a continuous pattern of corruption” between 2016 and 2018, including initiating corruption offenses by encouraging other players to fix matches for financial gain.

Jorge Panta Herreros, a 28-year-old Peruvian with a career-high world singles ranking of No. 447 reached in 2022, has been suspended for three years and fined $10,000, having been found liable for four major offenses under the TACP, including contriving the outcome of two of their own matches over a period of two years. Panta’s suspension will end at midnight on April 3, 2027.

The bans are linked to a recently concluded criminal case involving a match-fixing syndicate in Belgium.

Collaboration between the ITIA and Belgian authorities led to a five-year custodial sentence for the leader of the syndicate, Grigor Sargsyan. Five other players related to the case had previously been sanctioned after failing to respond to ITIA charges in 2023.

Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve