ITIA hands provisional suspension to French tennis player Broville

Broville has not been able to compete in or attend any sanctioned tennis events since 20 June this year. However, the ITIA has only now confirmed the suspension, pending the full consideration of Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP) charges. 

The ITIA says the suspension is in relation to Sections F.3.b.i.1 and F.3.b.i.4 of the TACP.  Section F.3.b.i.1 references how a covered person has failed to “comply with a demand”.

Section F.3.b.i.4 sets out the breach in more detail, stating there is a likelihood the player is guilty of a “major offence”. 

“In the absence of a provisional suspension, the integrity of tennis would be undermined and the harm resulting from the absence of a provisional suspension outweighs the hardship of the provisional suspension on the covered person,” the section says.

Broville appealed against the imposition of the provisional suspension. However, the appeal has since been dismissed by an independent anti-corruption hearing officer. 

The 24-year-old has a career-high ATP ranking of 708. Broville last played back in June in the M15 Casablanca event in Morocco.

Ongoing efforts to tackle corruption in tennis

Broville is the latest player to feel the wrath of the ITIA in recent months for breaching anti-corruption rules.

French player Alexis Musialek faces a ban from tennis for life for match-fixing offences.

Also in August, the ITIA provisionally suspended Timur Khabibulin, Sanjar Fayziev and Igor Smilansky for match-fixing and breaching the TACP on a number of occasions.

In June, the ITIA gave lifetime bans to Nastja Kolar and Alexandra Riley for multiple breaches of its TACP. The offences, all of which were related to match-fixing, took place between 2015 and 2020.