Tennis: Brazilian player Diego Matos banned for life for match fixing

Brazilian tennis player Diego Matos has been banned for life from professional tennis and slapped with a fine worth 125,000 dollars after being convicted of multiple match-fixing offences. He will also have to return tournament prize money of around 12,000 dollars, which he had earned while playing some ITF events in Ecuador. An investigation was carried out by an independed anti-corruption entity, which found that 31-year old Matos fixed several matches in 2018 at ITF tournaments in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Portugal and Spain. 

In 2018 Diego Matos won 44 matches and lost 28, while his ATP ranking at the end of the year was 1135th in the world. His highest ranking was 530th, but that was all the way back in 2012. He started his professional career in 2004 but always played in low-level tournaments. In fact, he never even attempted to qualify for the main draw of an ATP-tour level event. Overall, he won 232 matches in his career and lost 238. 

Diego Matos was also found guilty of not co-operating with the Tennis Integrity Unit investigation. The lack of co-operation refers to the fact that he refused to comply with requests to provide his mobile phone for forensic examination, and he also failed to supply financial records. In July 2018 another investigation made by the Tennis Integrity Unit led to the lifetime ban of Egyptian player Karim Hossam, aged 24. A month earlier, Argentinian player Nicolas Kicker was banned for three years for having fixed two matches back in 2015.