Argentinian tennis player Hernán Casanova was suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for illegal sports betting and involvement in a would-be match-fixing scandal.
Casanova, ranked 397 in the ATP rankings, said in an online post that he made “two mistakes” because he wasn’t aware of the rules.
Key Takeaways
- Casanova did not admit to throwing any matches.
- The man who beat Casanova was later involved in a match-fixing attempt at the same tournament.
- A different tennis player was suspended for 15 years for 35 betting offenses, including match-fixing.
Casanova admitted that he bet “for fun” on tennis matches in tournaments in which he did not compete from 2023 to 2025. Each offense constituted a violation of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).
Additionally, Casanova failed to report an approach from an individual who attempted to convince him to participate in match-fixing. This comes less than two weeks after Argentine Román Burruchaga and Spaniard Nikolas Sánchez Izquierdo, both of whom reached the finals of the Challenger 125 tournament in Rosario, Argentina, reported death threats from alleged gamblers who told them to throw their matches.
“I’m going to be suspended for two months,” Casanova wrote on his Instagram account on Friday. “I clearly accepted my mistake and suspension.”
Casanova cannot train or enter a match or tournament sanctioned by the ITIA until April 3. He was also fined $2,000, $1,500 of which was suspended.
“These are going to be two difficult months,” he continued. “I want to share this so that the kids who are just starting out in professional tennis read and get well informed about the anti-corruption program, because the smallest mistake comes at a cost.”
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Many attempts at match-fixing
Casanova began his professional career in 2011. The 32-year-old peaked at #221 in the world rankings in 2022. He won $329,387 in singles and doubles prize earnings over the course of his career.
The Argentine’s last match was a 1-6, 0-2 first-round loss and retirement against Taiwan’s Chun-Hsin Tseng in the Rosario Challenger.
Interestingly, Burruchaga played and beat Tseng in the semifinals of the tournament, and he later revealed that he was threatened with violence if he did not lose to Tseng.
Izquierdo did not face Tseng. However, he claimed to have received threats from a supposed illegal betting ring minutes before his second-round match against Argentine Valerio Aboian, who beat him in straight sets.
Fighting against corruption
Match-fixing is one of the most serious gambling-related offenses in sports. In 2024, Spain’s Aaron Cortes was fined $75,000 and suspended for 15 years for 35 breaches of the sport’s anti-corruption program.
The violations also reach far beyond the clay. More than 1,000 Turkish soccer players and nearly 150 referees were suspended last November for a variety of betting offenses, including match-fixing.
The increasing prevalence of gambling-related crimes has prompted strong oversight and harsher punishment from regulators. Casanova’s two-month sentence pales in comparison to many punishments faced by individuals found guilty of betting offenses.
