Tennis: Pavel Atanasov banned for life

Bulgarian tennis official Pavel Atanasov has been banned for like from tennis by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) following 21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). The ban is effective from March 4.

The national-level official initially contested the charges before withdrawing his appeal ahead of a hearing before an independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer. His case was rules by the Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Richard Young, who also issued Pavel Atanasov a $10,000 fine. In withdrawing from proceedings, Pavel Atanasov effectively admitted liability for numerous TACP offenses between 2019 and 2023, including the manipulation of scoring data of matches for betting purposes, facilitating wagering, conspiring to commit corruption offenses, wagering on tennis matches, and failure to report corrupt approaches.

The official, who had officiated at ITF $15K and $25K tournaments in Bulgaria, is permanently prohibited from officiating at or attending any tennis even authorized or sanctioned by the members of the ITIA (ATP, ITF, WTA, Tennis Australia, Fédération Française de Tennis, Wimbledon and USTA) or any national association.