Mardy Fish and Bob Bryan receive fines and suspended bans for gambling promotion
Mardy Fish and Bob Bryan have both received sanctions from the International Tennis Integration Agency.
The two are a part of the coaching team for the United States, thus making them "covered persons" and subject to the sport’s rules around relationships with betting operators.
According to the Section D.1.b of the 2022 Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP) rules, no covered person shall directly or indirectly facilitate, encourage and/or promote tennis betting.
However, Fish and Bryan did a promo for DraftKings during the US Open and were thus sanctioned by the ITIA. Both were fined $10,000 and issued with suspended bans of four months.
"The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has issued sanctions to two US tennis coaches for breaching tennis’ betting sponsorship rules. Bob Bryan and Mardy Fish have both been fined $10,000 and issued with suspended bans of four months after acknowledging the promotion of a gaming operator on social media. Both individuals co-operated fully with the ITIA investigation and removed the posts immediately," a statement on the ITIA official website read.
"The suspensions do not come into force unless there is a further breach during the four-month period, which started on 11 November 2022. Both had been accredited as part of the US Davis Cup coaching team in 2022, meaning they are considered “covered persons” and subject to the sport’s rules around relationships with betting operators. Fish and Bryan have also agreed to work with the ITIA to assist with education and prevention initiatives to highlight the importance of integrity in the game," it added.
Mardy Fish's United States were knocked out in Davis Cup quarterfinals
Mardy Fish captained the United States in the Davis Cup Finals, where they lost in the quarterfinals. The country finished second in their group behind the Netherlands and were drawn against last year's runners-up Italy in the last eight.
Lorenzo Sonego gave the Italians the lead by defeating US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-6(7) before World No. 9 Taylor Fritz drew the United States level by beating Lorenzo Musetti 7-6(8), 6-3.
Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini won the deciding doubles match 6-4, 6-4 against the pair of Tommy Paul and Jack Sock to eliminate USA and send Italy to the Davis Cup semifinals.
This was the United States' best performance in the tournament under Mardy Fish's captaincy, having previously suffered group-stage exits in 2019 and 2021.