Farah fined and banned for promoting gambling

Robert Farah, the Colombian doubles player beaten in this year’s Wimbledon mixed event by Jamie Murray and Victoria Azarenka, has been banned for three months and fined $5,000 (£3,783) for promoting a gambling website on social media.

Farah received the suspension from the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) even though he apologised and deleted the offending tweet, which had advertised Betsson, a Swedish gambling house.

But the TIU, committed to a zerotolerance policy on corruption in tennis, ruled that Farah’s tweet had contravened a regulation that no one “shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or facilitate any other person to wager on the outcome or any other aspect of any event or any other tennis competition.” Farah made his lapse shortly after he and compatriot Juan Sebastian Cabal reached the final of the Australian Open doubles, where they lost to Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic. The severity of his sanction appeared harsh. However, an organisation long derided as toothless has been acquiring sharper teeth of late.

In May, Argentina’s Nicolas Kicker was found guilty by the TIU of match-fixing and banned for six years. Earlier this month Karim Hossam, of Egypt, was removed from tennis for life after being convicted of multiple offences, including providing inside information.

Farah is ranked 16th in the world in doubles and has 11 ATP titles to his name. His penalty is suspended on the basis that no further breaches are committed within the next three months.