Even if the focus of the tennis community is now on the Roland Garros (and Rafa winning his 11th title), we have a big distraction from the terrible news: match-fixing.
The world no.84 Nicolas Kicker has been found guilty of match-fixing. The Argentine committed the first offence during a challenger in Italy (Padova) in 2015 and he repeated his criminal behavior in Colombia (Barranquilla) 3 months later.
The match vs. Lapenti
The match incriminated in Colombia was the one he lost to Giovanni Lapentti in the first round. 2-6 6-2 7-5. Apparently, when the result was locked on a 4-all scoreline, there was a funny moment with the Argentine trying to do everything he could to give away the game after serving as slow as he could and after committing also 2 consecutive double faults. Lapenti wasn’t really collaborating to miss some basic returns.
Nicolas Kicker received the bad news while he was training in Paris with Kei Nishikori. He is banned from playing in any match until the sanction is made public.
The Statement
The Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) released the following statement
“Mr. Kicker, 25, was found guilty of contriving the outcome of a match at the ATP Challenger tournament in Padova, Italy, in June 2015 and a match at the ATP Challenger tournament in Baranquilla, Colombia, in September 2015.
He was also found guilty of failing to report a corrupt approach and of not co-operating with a TIU investigation into the allegations made against him.”
Until that time [the sanction is made public] Mr. Kicker will not be granted credentials to enter or compete in any professional tennis event sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis.”
| BANNED FOR LIFE? |
| Embed from Getty Images |
