Former top 100 player Marco Cecchinato has been reinstated to the professional tour after a successful appeal to the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).
The 24-year-old was suspended by the Italian Tennis Federation earlier this year after an investigation alleged that Checchinato was complicit in match-fixing. Prosecutors accused the Italian of fixing the outcome of one of his matches at a Moroccan Challenger tournament on October 8th, 2015. The investigation claimed to have found evidence that the Italian, along with fellow player Riccardo Accardi, placed a bet on the him losing that match. Cecchinato has denied the allegation throughout the investigation.
Originally banned for 18 months, Cecchinato had his penalty reduced to 12 months in October after an independent tribunal ruled that he did not intentionally plan to fix a match. The tribunal accepted that the world No.188 never told Accardi that he was going to fix his match, but just notified him that he was feeling unwell. Furthermore, his revelations of compatriot Andreas Seppi having ‘physical issues’ prior to his match against John Isner at the 2015 French Open weren’t illegal because they was already reported in newspapers.
Following on from the reduction in his sentence, Cecchinato’s ban has been fully overturned. The appeal committee at the CONI concluded that there was ‘irregularities’ regarding how the evidence was gathered during the match-fixing investigation, ruling that the ban was not valid. He has also been exempt from paying his $20,000 fine.
Peaking at a career high of 82nd in October 2015, Cecchinato has won two Challenger titles in his career. His most recent triumph occurred in June at the Milan Open where he defeated Laslo Djere in the final. Outside of the Challenger events, he reached the quarter-final at this year’s Bucharest Open, an ATP 250 event.
Free to return to the tour, Cecchinato will start his 2017 season at the Doha Open where he will play in the qualifying draw.
Throughout 2016 tennis has been marred by match-fixing allegations. Earlier this year the Independent Review Panel was created to evaluate the integrity of tennis following allegations of widespread corruption by a joint report published by Buzzfeed News and the BBC. More recently, 34 people, including six unnamed tennis players on the Futures tour, were arrested in connection with a suspected match-fixing ring in Spain and Portugal.
