Five more tennis players suspended in match-fixing scandal

The International Tennis Integrity Agency has suspended five more tennis players for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal organised by a Belgian-Armenian ring. 

One player from Ecuador and four from Mexico were found guilty of match-fixing. Between 2014 and 2018, they were bribed by a match-fixing ring led by Grigor Sargsyan, an Armenian-Belgian who has since been sentenced to five years in prison.

Sargsyan recruited hundreds of tennis players into his network

Sargsyan operated from the Brussels municipality of Saint-Gilles and allegedly recruited hundreds of tennis players into his network. Sargsyan's ring is said to have fixed the results of at least 375 matches.

Ecuadorian Ivan Endara, 36, is the best-known of the five suspended players, ranked 367th in the ATP rankings in July 2015. The four Mexican players are Ivar Aramburu Contreras, Mauricio Resendiz Domínguez, Raul Isaías Rosas-Zarur and Aitor Aramburu Contreras.

Suspensions and fines

Endara, Resendiz Domingues and Rosas-Zazur were suspended for five years and fined 15,000 dollars. Ivar Aramburu Contreras was suspended for two years and two months and fined 44,000 dollars. His brother Aitor was suspended for one year and 10 months and fined 36,000 dollars.

At the end of last year, seven Belgian players were banned for two to four years and fined between 30,000 and 60,000 dollars for their role in the match-fixing ring. The players are Arnaud Graisse, Arthur de Greef, Julien Dubail, Romain Barbosa, Maxime Authom, Omar Salman and Alec Witmeur.

^{Ivan Endara during a Davis Cup match in Salinas, Ecuador, in 2012 © AFP PHOTO / RODRIGO BUENDIA}