Spanish tennis athlete Fernando Verdasco Fernandez has been suspended from competition for twenty-two months after confessing to manipulating the outcome of a 2018 match.
The global tennis integrity organization, the ITIA, revealed that Verdasco was charged a penalty of $3,000 for breaking the rules, with an extra $5,000 withheld on the condition that he does not break the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) rules again.
The TACP handling process suggests that Verdasco was penalized by the ITIA after acknowledging guilt, instead of undergoing a formal hearing.
Verdasco acknowledged that he received funds in 2018 to intentionally underperform in a match and did not report it. At the time, he was ranked 901st in the ATP.
Verdasco has been temporarily banned from playing since December 2019. As a result, he can return to playing tennis immediately.
Verdasco admitted to breaking three TACP rules, all of which fall under Section D. The first was deliberately not performing at his best in a match, the second was accepting money to play poorly.
The third infringement was his inability to disclose an effort to manipulate a competition.
These penalties follow the ITIA’s prohibition of Kyrgyzstani tennis player Ksenia Palkina for 16 years for confessing to numerous gambling-related offenses.
These two rulings were made after the declaration that Johnny Gray will be resigning as ITIA CEO later this year.
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