According to a statement from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on Wednesday, the ban from competition for French tennis player Samuel Bensoussan has been increased to 3 years after he appealed for match-fixing.
Initially, Bensoussan was banned from competition for 1 year and 11 months for arranging singles and doubles matches in lower-level leagues for a Belgian-based criminal organization.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has increased the penalty to 3 years for Bensoussan, 34, who once reached the highest ranking of 405 in the ATP singles rankings in June 2018.
ITIA announced CAS's ruling, which stated "investigation has found a criminal organization that bribed at least 181 tennis players worldwide and is involved in manipulating at least 375 tennis matches".
A criminal case in Belgium has led to a 5-year prison sentence for the leader of this organization.
Bensoussan appealed to CAS to overturn the initial penalty, while ITIA requested the sports court to increase the penalty to 6 and a half years.
3 CAS judges have rejected Bensoussan's request to return 1,000 Euros that tennis investigators believe he received for arranging one of the matches in 2018.
