Russian player receives 30-month ban from tennis integrity agency
Russian tennis player Nikita Gudozhnikov has been banned from the sport for 30 months due to his failure to co-operate with an integrity investigation.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has also fined Gudozhnikov $7,500 after a ruling by anti-corruption hearing officer, Ian Mill QC. The Russian is prohibited from playing in or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by the governing bodies during the term of his ban, which began on 4 February.
Gudozhnikov, who is unranked and has not played in an ATP event since 2018, was found to have breached section F.2.b. of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) rules. The section states that “all covered persons must cooperate fully with investigations conducted by the TIU including giving evidence at hearings, if requested.”
No details were given of the investigation in which he failed to cooperate.
Gudozhnikov played just 89 ATP-sanctioned matches in a career that ran from 2013-18. He had a win rate of 37%, losing 56 of his games.
It has been a busy period for the ITIA -- formerly the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) -- which is an independent body established by the International Governing Bodies of Tennis to safeguard the integrity of the sport.
Just last month, it issued lifetime bans to Russia’s Sofia Dmitrieva and Alija Merdeeva for match-fixing.
At the beginning of January it banned players from Egypt, Slovakia and Uzbekistan for offences related to sports betting and match-fixing.