Egypt and Argentina: the movements that condemned the Chilean tennis player Michel Vernier for match fixing

On July 19, International Tennis Integrity Agency announced the end of an investigation Chilean player Michel Vernier for corruption and reported a seven-year, five-month suspension and a fine, after admitting involvement in match-fixing in 2018. The athlete had been suspended since late March. However, there were still a few details to know.

“The matter has been dealt with under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) 2022 ‘Proposed Disposition’. This allows the ITIA to impose a sanction on the player who confesses guilt, without the need for a hearing.” the organization reasoned at the time, as to why a longer procedure had not been performed. “Therefore, the Player is prohibited from participating in or attending any sanctioned tennis event organized by the governing bodies of the sport with a date prior to the start of its provisional suspension on March 31, 2022, until August 30, 2029″, adds the report.

Despite the details of the press release, it remained unclear in which places and in how many tournaments these acts of corruption had taken place. Jock consulted the ITIA on this and the official response was as follows: “The charges related to three tournaments: one in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in April 2018 and two in Argentina in May 2018.”

Regarding the conduct of this investigation, the London-based organization says, through a written statement, that it all started with an alert of strange movements. “Suspicious betting patterns in singles and doubles matches have come to our attention, and the player has been investigated for fixing elements of matches and failing to report approaches. He admitted these charges.” he argues.

In April of that year, Vernier reached the singles semi-finals at Future 13 in Egypt and the quarter-finals at Future 14. In doubles, where He teamed up with Ukrainian Oleg Khotkov, who fell in the first round of these two tournaments (6-2, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-4). While in Argentina, he played in three tournaments the following month, at Villa del Dique, Villa María and Córdoba. In the first two, he bid farewell to his singles debut after losing to Chilean Víctor Núñez, while in the third he lost in the second round to Argentinian Gonzalo Villanueva, 6-1, 5- 0 and retired. In pairs his partner was the trans-Andean Fermín Tenti and in all three contests they were eliminated in the first round.

The phenomenon of betting and fixing in tennis is not new. There have been high profile cases such as Juan Carlos Sáez, who was suspended for eight years, after the infractions were proven and discovered that he had lied during the process by pointing out that he had lost his mobile phone, which was ruled out by the agency which detected movement with the same device weeks after the alleged loss.

Currently, in the list of sanctioned personalities of the entity, in addition to Pinky, Mauricio Álvarez (banned for life). He is joined by coach and former player Sebastien Rivera , which is temporarily suspended. Whereas before Christophe Saavedra He served a two-and-a-half-year sentence for failing to provide information to authorities about abnormal situations. Likewise, there are other South American players with severe penalties. This is the case of the Argentines Frank Feit (formerly Vernier’s stunt partner), banned forever, and Nicolás Arreche (four years old) or the Venezuelan Roberto Maytin (14 years old).

Another well-known case, that of the former Argentinian top 100 Nicholas Kicker , who was first suspended for six years but later shortened to three after pledging to participate in awareness campaigns. “I remember being very nervous. I remember (the extortionist) telling me to do certain things on the track but I was very nervous. And when I played, it was terrible, because had to throw away on purpose , my attitude was not the usual one, I kept looking at the referee to see if he was suspicious. It was horrible, I had a very bad time”, commented the Transandin in an interview with the ITF.

In all these cases, the procedure of the International Tennis Integrity Agency consists of four phases. In the first, the search is performed; then the evidence is collected and it is decided to file a complaint, to finally open a trial and establish the sanction.

The Tennis Integrity Unit was established in 2008 and its first director was Jeff Rees, a former Scotland Yard detective. Since this year and under its new name, the organization is also in charge of doping cases.