Tennis Player Banned From the Sport for the Next 24 Years and Hit With $70K Fine After Match-Fixing Probe

A Serbian tennis player has received one of the harshest punishments in the sport’s fight against corruption, with a suspension that will keep him off the court for more than two decades.

Stefan Milicevic received a 24-year ban after an investigation found he fixed multiple matches and recruited or attempted to recruit other players into a match-fixing network, according to a report published by The Athletic on Thursday, October 15.

Milicevic, 29, was found to have fixed six matches, including five he played in himself. He also attempted to fix another six matches between 2022 and 2024, according to the International Tennis Integrity Authority (ITIA), which investigates corruption in professional tennis.

Match-fixing happens when someone deliberately influences the outcome of a match or part of a match, often to help people make money through betting.

According to the article, Milicevic played 11 professional matches between 2022 and 2024, all at the third tier of professional tennis.

The ITIA also found that Milicevic recruited or attempted to recruit other players “as part of a corrupt network during the same period, resulting in a number of other players fixing matches.”

Milicevic did not cooperate with the investigation, despite what the ITIA described as “seven separate ITIA attempts, through multiple channels, to raise a response from the player,” per the report.

He also failed to respond to a formal Notice of Major Offense issued on September 24. As a result, his case never went before an anti-corruption hearing officer. Instead, he received what is known as a “deemed sanction,” meaning the penalty was imposed without a hearing.

An ITIA spokesperson said, via The Athletic, that the lengthy suspension reflected the seriousness of the match-fixing offenses and Milicevic’s efforts to recruit other players, not his failure to cooperate.

Milicevic was also fined $70,000. His ban runs until October 2050, when he will be 53 years old. During his suspension, he cannot compete in, coach at or attend events organized or sanctioned by major tennis organizations, including the ATP, WTA, Grand Slams and national tennis associations.

Milicevic reached his highest singles world ranking of No. 1,338 in 2014 and played in 22 professional tournaments on the lower-tier International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tour between 2013 and 2023.

He also played college tennis at the University of Minnesota and worked as a tennis coach at DePaul University in Chicago.

In August 2023, Milicevic reached the doubles final of a tournament in Osijek, Croatia, alongside Croatian player Marino Jakic.

According to The Athletic, Jakic, 23, was provisionally suspended by the ITIA in June 2026 pending an investigation into possible violations of anti-corruption rules dating to 2023. That investigation remains ongoing, and no final sanction has been imposed.