ITIA Bans Italian Umpire Lorenzo Chiurazzi over Match-Fixing Breaches

The independent body safeguarding the integrity of tennis, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), announced a regulatory sanction against an Italian umpire. On Friday, the Agency revealed it banned Lorenzo Chiurazzi from the sport for seven years and six months. Besides the lengthy ban, the ITIA imposed a $50,000 fine with $33,500 suspended against the national-level Italian chair umpire and line judge.

According to the Agency, the ban and fine were issued under its "Proposal for Disposition" process. This process enables the governing body to impose a penalty or sanction without the need for a hearing but based upon the admission of offenses.

In a statement released on Friday, August 26, 2022, ITIA noted that the ban is in effect from August 12, the day when the charges were made and will remain in effect through February 11, 2030. For the 7.5-year-period, Chiurazzi won't be permitted to attend or officiate any events that are sanctioned or authorized by the ITIA.

The tennis integrity watchdog said the offenses date back to tournaments from 2021 in Perugia, Italy. The ITIA revealed Chiurazzi admitted to breaches related to match-fixing that included delays when inputting scores into an electronic scoring device. Additionally, the Agency said the umpire input scores that deviated from the actual scores on court. Another breach of the rules was that Chiurazzi failed to cooperate with the Agency's investigation. The integrity watchdog said the umpire "failed to report corrupt approaches" as well.

All of the offenses are breaches related to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). Overall, Chiurazzi breached five TACP rules that included Section D.1.b, Section D.1.m, Section D.1.d, Section D.2.b.i and Section F.2.b. The TACP Section D.1.b states that "no Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any Event or any other tennis competition."

On the other hand, Section D.1.m forbids any covered person from delaying scoring data of any event, while Section D.1.d forbids the manipulation of the outcomes of any event. TACP's Section D.2.b.i and Section F.2.b describe that all covered persons must cooperate with the ITIA upon investigating potential breaches and reporting any such incidents.

The summer was busy for the tennis integrity watchdog. Earlier this month, the ITIA announced a provisional suspension for Felipe Hernandez, a 22-year-old Chilean tennis player. At the time of the announcement, the watchdog said the provisional suspension is the result of Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) breaches.

Similarly, the ITIA provisionally suspended Andrej Martin, a 32-year-old tennis player from Slovakia. The provisional suspension was again the result of TADP breaches uncovered by the Agency.

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