Brazil’s Matos handed life ban for tennis match-fixing

Brazilian professional tennis player Diego Matos has been handed a lifetime ban from the sport after being convicted of multiple match-fixing offences.

An anti-corruption hearing found Matos manipulated the outcome of 10 matches played in 2018 at ITF level tournaments in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Portugal and Spain.

The 31-year-old has also been fined $125,000 (€113k) and ordered to repay winnings of $12,000 for match-fixing linked to tournaments in Ecuador.

Matos was also found guilty of failing to cooperate fully with the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) investigators, failing at three interviews to provide his mobile phone and financial records. He was already provisionally suspended from tennis since December 2018.

Matos had a career-best Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking of 241 in doubles in December 2018, while as a singles player, his highest ranking was 580 in April 2012.