Dutch tennis coach Max Wenders has been banned from coaching in official matches of the tennis associations for 12 years. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has announced today, which guarantees integrity in international tennis. Wenders, 26, has admitted to match fixing, according to ITIA. He also destroyed evidence requested by the ITIA, the integrity watchdog said.
Details of Wenders’ match fixing — how he went about it, which matches he manipulated — has not yet been released by the ITIA. The press release does state which rules the Limburg tennis coach has violated; rules prohibiting (trying to) influence match results. The integrity watchdog specifically mentions the ban on bribery of tennis players, for example so that they do not do their best.
Wenders opted for a career as a coach instead of a player when he was in high school, precisely because of a lack of money. “Tennis is an expensive sport. When I was twelve or thirteen I already realized that I didn’t have enough money to become a pro,” he said last year against The Times of India. Last year it was announced that he had a romantic relationship with American tennis star Sofia Kenin, who won the Australian Open in 2020. It is not certain whether Wenders had any influence on the course of that tournament.