Croatian tennis umpire, Denis Pitner, has been banned for 10 years by the ITF after working at two high profile tennis tournaments whilst suspended from competition.
In August 2015 Pitner was handed a one-year silent ban for passing on details about a player’s fitness and logging into numerous betting accounts from which bets was placed on matches. Despite being given the ban, a sensational report by the Guardian discovered that the suspended umpire worked at the 2015 US Open as well as this year’s Doha Open.
The discovery caused great embarrassment for the ITF, who later admitted that there was a ‘flaw in the system’. A spokeswoman for the ITF said that the Croatian Tennis Federation was informed about the ban, however, she remained coy about the level of knowledge concerning the USTA and ATP. The USTA stated that Pitner picked up his US Open accreditation before they was notified of his ban.
After the controversy, the ITF has now decided to hand the Croat with a 10-year ban for violating his suspension. He was found guilty of the five following offenses:-
– Failure to notify the United States Tennis Association of the suspension of his White Badge certification;
– Misrepresentation to the Qatar Tennis Federation that he held a current White Badge certification in his application to officiate at the 2016 Qatar Open;
– Receipt of payment for officiating at the 2016 Qatar Open at the rate applicable for a White Badge official;
– Misrepresentation to the Lawn Tennis Association that he held a current White Badge certification in his application to officiate at The Championships Wimbledon;
– Failure to report the violations set out above.
Pitner will not be allowed to officiate in any WTA, ATP or ITF match until April 19th 2026.
Previously the naming of officials receiving penalties was not made public, however, a change in the rules in December 2015 allowed public naming to start from 2016. Pitner was one of two umpires suspended last year. Kazakh umpire, Kirill Parfenov, was banned for life in February 2015 after being found guilty of contacting another official on Facebook in an attempt to manipulate the scoring of matches.
