The Global Tennis Integrity Agency (GTIA) has penalized a former professional competitor and a referee for breaking betting-related regulations.
David Goršič, a former Slovenian competitor, and Steven Nguyen, an Australian national-level referee, were accused of violating the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). Both confessed to participating in tennis betting while under the TACP’s authority.
Goršič, who reached a peak singles ranking of 1399 in 2015, admitted to engaging in betting activities between 2017 and 2018.
He will face a six-month suspension, three months of which are deferred. This implies he will be ineligible to participate from May 21 to August 20. He was also fined $5,000 (£3,926/€4,660), with $3,500 of that deferred.
Nguyen, who served as a referee for ITF junior, wheelchair, and W25 events, was discovered to have participated in tennis betting between 2021 and 2023. He will be banned for three months – from May 23 to August 22 – and fined $2,000, with $1,400 deferred.
The GTIA did not reveal further information about the cases. However, it did confirm that the penalties prohibit Goršič and Nguyen from participating in or attending any tennis events authorized or sanctioned by GTIA members.
The GTIA will continue to fight corruption in tennis.
The Global Tennis Integrity Agency (GTIA) has been aggressively addressing corruption and wagering violations within the sport of tennis.
In the previous month, they permanently prohibited Armando Belardi, a Venezuelan official, from participating. Belardi was discovered to have violated the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) a remarkable 26 times.
Also in May, Emanuele Bastia, an Italian competitor, was barred for a period of four months and two weeks after admitting to placing bets on tennis contests. Meanwhile, Austrian wheelchair tennis athlete Nico Langmann was penalized for breaching regulations concerning betting sponsorships.
Additional recent cases involve a lifetime prohibition for Alejandro Mendoza Crespo and a three-year suspension for Jorge Panta Herreros. Both instances were associated with a larger criminal organization in Belgium, whose leader, Grigor Sargsyan, was sentenced to five years of imprisonment.
Following this judgment, seven players were banned for varying durations in November. They were found to have violated the TACP.
Since that time, numerous other players have been accused of similar transgressions.