Stefan Milićević will be 53 years old when he is allowed to return to professional tennis. Assuming he wants to. The 29-year-old Serbian has been suspended for 24 years and fined $70,000 following an investigation by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) into extensive breaches of the sport’s anti-corruption rules.
His suspension began on October 9, 2026. It will end on October 8, 2050, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that is an extraordinary punishment, but the length of the ban isn’t necessarily the most disturbing part of the story.
According to the ITIA, Milićević was charged with fixing six matches, including five in which he competed, and attempting to manipulate another six between 2022 and 2024. He was also accused of recruiting, or attempting to recruit, multiple professional players into a corrupt network, with the agency reporting that other players later fixed matches.
That last detail changes everything because this was not simply an allegation involving one desperate player and one suspicious match. The ITIA describes something considerably more organized, and it raises uncomfortable questions about what is happening in the lower reaches of professional tennis.
Milićević Banned 25 Years
How Does a Player Ranked No. 1338 Become Part of a Match-Fixing Network?
Milićević’s career-high ATP singles ranking was No. 1338, achieved in August 2014. He never established himself on the ATP Tour, never reached the Top 100, and never enjoyed anything resembling the financial rewards available to elite players; yet, according to the ITIA’s allegations, he became involved in an operation that extended beyond his own matches, an important distinction. Match-fixing investigations often concentrate on individual athletes deliberately losing matches or manipulating particular games.
Recruitment is a different problem, as it means corruption can spread through personal relationships, with one player potentially becoming a connection between others willing to manipulate results. Apparently, that’s what happened. Milićević did not cooperate with investigators; despite seven attempts to contact him through multiple channels, he did not respond after receiving a formal Notice of Major Offense on September 24.
Consequently, the ITIA’s proposed sanction took effect under its rules without a contested hearing. That procedural distinction matters, as the punishment is official, but the published announcement does not provide a detailed evidentiary account tested through an adversarial hearing.
Nevertheless, the allegations illustrate a very serious vulnerability. Lower-level professional tennis is a difficult environment in which to earn a living. At an ITF M15 tournament, the entire prize pool is only $15,000, and according to the ITF’s published prize-money distribution, a player losing in the opening round of the main draw received just $156 under the 2025 schedule.
Travel, accommodation, coaching, and equipment can easily cost more than that, so a player can compete professionally, win matches, and still struggle to cover the costs of participating.
That does not excuse match-fixing, nor does it establish Milićević’s personal motivation, but it helps explain why the lower levels of tennis present particular integrity challenges. The financial difference between legitimate competition and an illicit approach can be enormous. And when players spend much of their careers moving between small tournaments, often without established support teams, detecting and resisting corrupt approaches becomes especially important.
The Bigger Problem Is That Fixing Can Spread
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the case is the suggestion that the alleged activity extended to other players. A corrupted match is one thing, but a corrupt recruitment network is another. The second requires tennis authorities to identify not only suspicious results but also the relationships and financial arrangements that allow manipulation to spread, creating a difficult investigative problem.
An unusual betting pattern may indicate that something deserves examination. Still, it doesn’t necessarily reveal who organized the activity, whether the player acted independently, or how many other matches might be involved.
The ITIA’s ability to investigate beyond the immediate competitors is therefore essential, but punishment alone cannot solve the underlying problem. Tennis also needs accessible reporting mechanisms, effective player education and credible protection for athletes approached by people seeking to manipulate matches.
There is another uncomfortable consideration. A 24-year suspension sounds devastating, but a sanction of that length may have limited deterrent value for someone who has already largely abandoned serious professional ambitions. The real objective should be to prevent corrupt networks from recruiting active players in the first place, and that requires more than announcing exceptionally long suspensions after investigations conclude.
The Last Word
The Milićević case is disturbing because of its scale: six allegedly fixed matches and another six attempted manipulations. Multiple players allegedly approached, and an official suspension that will last until 2050, but the wider lesson concerns the vulnerability of professional tennis below the sport’s glamorous upper levels. For every player earning millions, hundreds try to survive in a system where even successful weeks can yield little financial reward.
That does not make corruption inevitable, but it makes prevention particularly important. The ITIA has issued an extraordinary sanction, but the more important question is how many similar networks might still be working without attracting the same attention.
Main Photo Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran – USA TODAY Sports
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