A former coach on the women’s Tour has been suspended from the sport for more than a decade after being found guilty of breaking multiple rules of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP).
Max Wenders has been banned from the sport for 12 years and ordered to pay a fine of $12,000 for the offences. Wenders, who is from the Netherlands, admitted to destroying evidence requested by the Tennis Integrity Unit (which has since been rebranded as the ITIA) related to their investigation. He has also been found guilty of failing to report a corrupt approach to relevant authorities. No details about where or the time these incidents took place has been given.
“The sanction means that Wenders is prohibited from playing in, coaching at or attending any tennis event authorized or sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis for a period of 12 years from the date of the decision (28 April 2021).” A statement issued by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) reads.
The reason for a delay in the publication of Wenders ban is due to a legal case he launched in a bid to overturn his conviction. Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO) Professor Richard McLaren was the person who lifted the prohibition of the sentence being published.
Wenders grew up training at an academy in Belgium where he also doubled as a coach. According to The Times of India, he has previously worked as a hitting partner for Jelena Ostapenko and served as an assistant coach to Anette Kontaveit. He has also worked with doubles specialist Demi Schuurs who is currently ranked 18th in the world, as well as Miriam Bianca Bulgaru of Romania.
The 26-year-old was also linked by some media outlets as working with former Australian Open Sofia Kenin. However, in a tweet published on November 10th 2021, he denied ‘having any influence’ over her tennis. There has also been speculation that the two have been romantically involved with each other but UbiTennis can’t verify these claims.
Wenders is yet to publicly comment on his ban.
List of TACP rules broken
Section D1.d of the 2019 TACP: No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive, attempt to contrive, agree to contrive, or conspire to contrive the outcome, or any other aspect, of any Event.”
Section D.1.e of the 2018 TACP: “No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, facilitate any Player to not use his or her best efforts in any Event.”
Section D.2.b.ii of the 2019 TACP: “In the event any Player is approached by any person who offers or provides any type of money, benefit or Consideration to a Player to (i) influence the outcome or any other aspect of any Event, or (ii) provide Inside Information, it shall be the Player’s obligation to report such incident to the TIU as soon as possible.
Section F.2.b of the 2019 TACP: “All Covered Persons must cooperate fully with investigations conducted by the TIU including giving evidence at hearings, if requested. After a Covered Person receives a TIU request for an initial interview or otherwise becomes aware of any TIU investigation involving the Covered Person, the Covered Person shall (i) preserve and not tamper with, damage, disable, destroy or otherwise alter any evidence (including any personal devices described in Section F.2.c.i.) or other information related to any Corruption Offense and (ii) not solicit, facilitate or advise any other person to fail to preserve, tamper with, damage, disable, destroy or otherwise alter any evidence or other information related to any Corruption Offense.”
