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MILAN - Italy's Alessio Di Mauro has been banned for nine months after becoming the first professional tennis player to be caught in a betting crackdown, the ATP said on Saturday.
The world number 124, who made the Australian and French Open first rounds this year, has also been fined US$60,000 ($78,616) after an ATP probe launched in April found he wagered on other players' matches between November 2, 2006 and June 12, 2007.
No attempt was made to fix results but an independent hearing officer decided he had committed an offence under the ATP anti-corruption programme.
He could have faced a maximum three-year suspension.
"This ruling underlines the ATP's stated policy of not tolerating players, associates or staff gambling on tennis," Gayle David Bradshaw, ATP's administrator of rules and competition said in a statement.
"The ATP requested that the maximum sentence be imposed and whilst we would have preferred a longer suspension, we recognise that the independent anti-corruption hearing officer has to administer sanctions related to the specifics of the case and not as a general prevention.
"This is the first player to be sanctioned under the programme and we found no evidence of any attempt by the player to bet on his own matches. We also found no evidence of any attempt to affect the outcome of any matches."
Di Mauro's manager Corrado Tchabusnich told La Gazzetta dello Sport's website: "Alessio is quite disappointed, the ban for what he has done is very harsh.
"Certainly we will appeal to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) in Lausanne. We expect a sentence of a couple of months at most."
The Italian Tennis Federation said Di Mauro was found to have an online betting account but also thought the ban was disproportionate, especially compared to doping bans in the sport.
Di Mauro earned a ranking high of 68 in February after reaching his first ATP final in Buenos Aires where he lost to Argentina's Juan Monaco.
Tennis is wary of betting after a troubled period for the sport.
A match in August between Russia's Nikolay Davydenko and lowly-ranked Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello in Poland was voided by British online betting exchange Betfair because of unusual betting patterns.
Several players have since said they had turned down offers to throw a match in exchange for money.
- REUTERS
