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Three Australians banned for match fixing during ITF Futures tennis tournament

Lindahl has been hit with a hefty fine and ban from the game after being found guilty.

Lindahl has been hit with a hefty fine and ban from the game after being found guilty. Photo: Getty

Retired Australian player Nick Lindahl has been served a landmark $US35,000 ($A47,580) fine and banned from professional tennis after being found guilty of corruption offences in the sport.

The disgraced player, a former world No.187, has been barred from re-entering the sport for seven years by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) in a judgement released on Tuesday.

Two other Australians – Brandon Walkin and Isaac Frost – have also been implicated in the incident, which took place in 2013 at the third-tier ITF Futures tour event in Toowoomba.

Lindahl had already been convicted of using corrupt conduct information and fined $1000 in Sydney’s Burwood Local Court.

The TIU found Lindahl guilty of charges of contriving or attempting to contrive the outcome of an event and failing to cooperate with a TIU investigation, saying he proposed to lose a match in return for payment.

He will not be able to play in, or attend, any sanctioned tennis tournament for the life of his ban.

Walkin and Frost were also found guilty of disciplinary offences by TIU official Richard McLaren.

Walkin, 22, a singles player ranked 1066, was given a suspended six-month ban after being found guilty of contriving or attempting to contrive the outcome of an event.

Frost, 28, ranked world No.1515, was found to have failed to cooperate with the TIU by refusing a request to supply his phone for analysis.

Both will be allowed to continue their careers unencumbered.

Walkin must avoid a similar charge for the next six months for his ban pass, while Frost has been deemed to have served his suspension in the months after the Toowoomba event.

The TIU report landed in the week before the Australian Open, and comes off the back of another talented local junior being embroiled in a corruption investigation.

Reigning Australian Open junior champion Oliver Anderson, 18, faces charges of match-fixing relating to a second-tier Challenger tournament last year in Traralgon.

In a statement, Tennis Australia said it would “support the efforts of the authorities to help remove corruption from tennis”, and had appointed two experienced investigators within its own integrity unit to do so.

-AAP

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