Sousa clears name after Souza ban

BRAZILIAN Joao Souza has been banned from tennis for life after being convicted of multiple match-fixing and other corruption offences.

A Tennis Integrity Unit investigation found the 31-yearold had committed several anti-corruption breaches from 2015-19, including fixing matches at ATP Challenger and ITF Futures tournaments in Brazil, Mexico, the United States and the Czech Republic.

However, an awkward case of mistaken identity is causing havoc for one of Souza’s former rivals.

Top-ranked Portuguese player Joao Sousa has been wrongly identified by some media outlets as the player banned.

Note the different ‘z’ and ‘s’ in the two surnames.

Sousa has posted a statement to ensure his name was in the clear.

“Today I saw my image associated with another tennis player whose last name sounds like mine but is written differently,” he wrote.

“The difference between S and Z is apparently small but in this case ends up being enormous as it associates me with something unimaginable.

“So to clarify the more distracted ones, my name is Joao

SouSa, I am a PORTUGUESE tennis player and I don’t have any problem with TIU and I am 100% focused on my next tournament, the ATP250 in Montpellier, starting on the 3rd February. Thanks for your support.”

Sousa lost in the first round of this year’s Australian Open to Federico Delbonis.

Souza had been provisionally suspended since March 2019 pending completion of the investigation.

He was also fined $200,000 following a disciplinary hearing on January 14 in London.