French tennis player Samuel Bensoussan has seen his match-fixing ban extended to a full three years after a failed appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has confirmed.
Bensoussan, 34, was originally handed a suspension of one year and eleven months last June after an independent anti-corruption hearing officer determined he had fixed four matches. He was also fined $12,000 and connected to a criminal case involving a match-fixing syndicate operating in Belgium.
Rather than seeing his punishment reduced, Bensoussan's decision to appeal backfired significantly. CAS not only dismissed his challenge and upheld every ITIA charge, but went further by ruling that the sanction should be increased to align with penalties handed down in comparable cases. Having already been suspended since May 2025, Bensoussan is now barred from competing until May 2028.
In its ruling, CAS highlighted the alarming scale of the corruption network at the centre of the case, noting that investigators had uncovered an organisation that corrupted at least 181 players globally and manipulated a minimum of 375 matches. Bensoussan was one of four players sanctioned in connection with the probe last year, alongside Natthasith Kunsuwan, Jaimee Floyd Angele, and Christian Lindell.
The terms of the ban are comprehensive, suspended individuals are prohibited from playing, coaching, or even attending events organised by the ATP, WTA, World Tennis, or Grand Slam authorities. Bensoussan, whose career-high ranking of 405 came back in June 2018, had not competed professionally since 2019 in any case.
With corruption cases continuing to reshape careers, TennisDraw users tracking the sport's integrity landscape will want to keep a close eye on how these rulings influence the broader tour ecosystem.
