Japanese player Junn Mitsuhashi has been given a lifetime ban and fined US$50,000 for match-fixing offences.
The Tennis Integrity Unit has found the 27-year-old guilty of trying to make a player approach approach another to corrupt a match at an F1 Futures tournament in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The player in question was Joshua Chetty, who was previously coached by Mitsuhashi. Chetty admitted that he was offered US$2,000 to underperform in a singles match and US$600 in a doubles match. He was handed a lifetime ban for match-fixing offences last November.
During December 2015, Mitsuhashi also contacted a player to persuade him to corrupt parts of his match at a Futures tournament in Nigeria. The identity of that player has not been revealed. During October-November of that year, he placed 76 bets on matches.
Mitsuhashi is now prohibited from playing or attending any tennis match sanctioned by the governing bodies. Throughout the investigation, he refused to cooperate in the investigation, according a statement from the Tennis Integrity Unit.
“In spite of repeated requests to engage with the TIU, the player refused to respond or co-operate with enquiries into the allegations against him. Failing to co-operate is an offence in its own right.” The TIU said.
Mitsuhashi won six Futures titles between 2008-2012 and achieved a ranking high of 295 in June 2009. At the time of the offences he was ranked 1997th in the world. The 27-year-old hasn’t played a competitive match since December 2014.
Earlier this month Greek player Konstantinos Mikos was also permanently excluded from the sport for match-fixing. The investigation found Mikos offered Alexandros Jakupovic money to influence his match. Jakupovic was also banned in 2015.
In April the European Sport Security Association (ESSA) found 45% of suspicious betting patterns occurred in tennis during the first three months of 2017 in their quarterly report. The body said it has reported 27 cases of suspicious activity to relevant bodies, of which 12 were for tennis.