Stefan Milicevic Banned Until 2050 Over Tennis Match-Fixing

What changed

Serbian tennis player Stefan Milicevic has been banned for 24 years and fined £53,000 over match-fixing and alleged attempts to recruit other players into a corrupt network.

The International Tennis Integrity Authority said he was charged over six fixed matches, five involving him as a player, plus six further attempted fixes between 2022 and 2024. His ban runs until October 2050, when he will be 53.

Why it matters

This is effectively a career-ending punishment without being formally called a lifetime ban. Milicevic cannot play, coach at or attend events sanctioned by World Tennis, the ATP, the WTA, the Grand Slam tournaments or national associations.

The case also reaches beyond the matches directly involving him. The authority said he tried to recruit multiple professional players, some of whom have also been accused of fixing matches. It has not been established whether every player allegedly recruited will face sanctions.

Milicevic had reached 1,338th in the world in 2014 and played in 22 lower-tier ITF tournaments between 2013 and 2023. That detail matters: match-fixing is not confined to the sport’s biggest stages. For a player operating far from the spotlight, a 24-year ban removes almost every route back into organised tennis.

The authority said seven attempts were made to contact him during the investigation and that he did not engage with the process. That lack of cooperation helped make the sanction one of the harshest imposed outside a lifetime ban.