Tennis Players Banned for Life for Cheating Scandal

Two Russian tennis players have  recently been banned for life from entering competitions after an alleged cheating scandal was proved correct. The player’s names were Alija Merdeeva and Sofia Dmitrieva, and were accused of match fixing. The International Tennis Integrity Agency further stated that the case focused on multiple incidents.

Reports by the International Tennis Integrity Agency show that Merdeeva and Dmitrieva were caught by teaming up as doubles partners, as well as playing in professional tournaments that were at a low level. Furthermore, they both refused to cooperate with the official investigation, which led to another charge being placed. In total, six charges were put on the player’s records, and they are now banned from playing, coaching, and attending tournaments. The match fixing affected lots of players as Merdeeva and Dmitrieva had been able to boost their ranking to 900th in the world, leaving legitimate players behind. 

To many, cheating in tennis seems difficult to do, as one is in front of an open space with an audience watching – However, this is certainly not the first instance or type of cheating recorded. One notorious type of cheating found in tennis that is commonly not seen to this day is illegally calling the trainer. A player can manipulate this rule when he or she is losing or tired, by faking an injury in order to rest or come to their coach for advice. However, tennis officials have taken steps to ensure that there is a low probability of this happening.

The strong crackdown on match fixing and other types of cheating comes just months after an enormous cheating scandal was discovered in June, 2020. Players would intentionally lose while other people would be knowing of this and place hundreds of bets on the winning player. This scandal was global and had more than 130 members, professional tennis players included. Some players were able to collect more than $300,000 prompting the police and tennis officials to be more cautious and monitor irregular activities of tennis players