Serbian tennis player Stefan Milicevic banned for 24 years for match-fixing

Serbian tennis player Stefan Milicevic has been given a mammoth 24-year ban for match-fixing and recruiting fellow players into “a corrupt network”.

It is one of the most severe punishments ever imposed by anti-corruption investigators, only a little short of a lifetime ban, with Milicevic forbidden from being involved with tennis until October 2050.

The Serb – who reached a career-high world ranking of 1,338th in 2014 and only played on the lower rungs of the professional ladder – was charged with fixing six matches, including five in which he was competing, and attempting to fix a further six matches. His offences occurred between 2022 and 2024.

According to the the International Tennis Integrity Authority (ITIA), the 29-year-old was also charged with recruiting or attempting to recruit multiple professional players “as part of a corrupt network during the same period, resulting in a number of other players fixing matches.”

Milicevic also offered a complete lack of co-operation with the investigation, with the ITIA saying that he did not engage in the process despite “seven separate ITIA attempts, through multiple channels, to raise a response from the player.”

He also received a £53,000 fine and is suspended from any official tennis involvement until October 2050, when he will be 53 years old. During his ban, he is not allowed to play in, coach at, or attend any events organised or sanctioned by World Tennis, WTA, ATP, the Grand Slams, or any national association.

The Serb, who played college tennis at the University of Minnesota and was a coach at DePaul University in Chicago, is the latest player from the lower tiers of the game to receive a hefty punishment for match-fixing.

Frenchman Quentin Folliot was banned for 20 years last December after committing 27 breaches of the tennis anti-corruption protocol, while China’s Pang Renlong received a sanction of 12 years in the same month.