Last 10 September the Tennis Integrity Unit announced the ban of two polish players: Piotr Gadomski and Arkadiusz Kocyla. Other two “little fishes” finished in the TIU fishing net, while we have often blatant evidences at bigger level as I previously wrote here.

The following table resumes the violations Gadomski and Kocyla committed according to TIU investigation.

Rule Violations Gadomski Kocyla No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, contrive or attempt to contrive the outcome or any other aspect of any 3 2 No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or facilitate any Player to not use his or her best efforts in any Event 1 0 No Covered Person shall, directly or indirectly, solicit or accept any money, benefit or Consideration with the intention of negatively influencing a Player’s best efforts in any Event 1 0 In the event any Player knows or suspects that any other Covered Person or other individual has committed a Corruption Offense, it shall be the Player’s obligation to report such knowledge or suspicion to the TIU as soon as possible 1 1 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 0 1

Piotr Gadomski wrote on his Facebook page that he declares himself innocent and that he will appeal to Lausanne Court Arbitration Sport and will not give any further comments about the ban.

Arkadiusz Kocyla wanted to affirm as much as possible that he is a clean player so he accepted an interview.

When did TIU contact you for the first time?

They contacted me first time in Sharm El Sheikh, when I was playing Futures last March.

What did they ask to you?

Questions like “Have you ever sold tennis match”, “Do you know anyone who is selling tennis matches”, “Did you ever had offer from someone to do that”.

And you replied NOT to every question?

I never did that so I of course I said no but once I had an offer and I didn’t report it.

Why?

I didn’t know that I have to report them, I was 18 years old: I was young so I didn’t understand every word of the ITF rules.

The offer was from another player or someone outside?

Someone outside.

How did this offer arrive to you? In person?

Two people woke me up in the hotel, first time I saw them in my life: they told me we give you half money before and half after match. I gave them money back and I said I don’t do that. I had enough money to travel and play tennis, why would I have to do that?

What tournament was that?

ITF Bytom in Poland

Did polish people approach you then?

No, some people from abroad.

Ok, coming back to Sharm, did the TIU ask you to bring them your phone and laptop as they generally do?

They didn’t, they were sure I did something wrong but they had very small evidence.

They showed you an SMS, apparently sent by your phone right?

Yes, it’s true but I didn’t write that SMS.

Which was the text and who received the SMS?

SMS was like that, only “skype” and the name of another guy as “Skype Felix” or “Skype Mathias”. I don’t remember the exact name, my lawyer has everything.

Who was the receiver?

SMS was sent to a guy named Sergei but I don’t know him, I never saw him.

Just Sergei?

Yeah, I only know he is from Russia. I was framed.

Which was approximately the date of the SMS?

December 2012 when I was playing Futures in Hong Kong.

So they showed you this “Skype xxxxx” SMS and after that what did they say?

That I was suspected of selling matches.

Did they show you any of the matches you were suspected of?

Yes, they did. Doubles matches.

With Gadomski as partner I imagine.

Yes, with Gadomski.

Which matches?

I gave the papers to my lawyer a few days ago , I’m not sure but I think a match was against Evgeny Karlovskiy / Victor Baluda (QF in Hong Kong Future F1 2012, polish players lost 36 36 as seed #3 vs unseeded).

Do you know if Gadmoski was banned for same matches or some others?

He has more allegations.

Do you know for which match?

Same 2 matches but I have three allegations while he has more.

So you have this doubles vs Baluda/Karlovskiy and the other two which are?

I don’t remember the third one, the second one was against Marcus Daniell / Kaden Hensell (SF in Hong Kong Future F3 2012, polish players lost 16 57 as seed #4 vs unseeded).

No singles matches?

No singles matches, in every match in my career I tried to win!

So in Sharm they showed their “evidences” and then just said “We will send everything to London and they will decide”?

A few months later they contacted me.

Saying what?

That they were waiting for my confession or I should have prepared my defense. I said I will fight because I am clean. Those evidences were not serious. I didn’t go to London and I stopped contact with them because I was sure that there was nothing they could do. They should have asked to go to London to the real sender of the SMS, not to me. In Gadomski’s telephone there were much more sms like that.

Do you think he was the sender?

I don’t know.

Did your relation with him change after this?

Yes, we stopped contact…but because girlfriend.

Can you imagine he can be the one that set you up? Or you could not believe it?

I really don’t known, I don’t think so.

So you didn’t go to London and then you received an e- mail or a telephone call?

I didn’t go to London.

How did you know you were banned then?

I read about my ban on internet.

Why didn’t you play after Sharm Futures? Did they ask you not to play or you were injured?

I got injured and I lost motivation so I stopped playing tennis.

And now you cannot even attend tournaments: I was told they kicked you out from Szczecin Challenger last week.

Yes, I have ban from tennis courts.

Last question: please read these links about ATP Challenger matches “supposed” to be fixed: TIU keeps banning ITF players and they do nothing with blatant Challenger matches like those. What is your opinion about that?

This is ridicoulus: the video is an hard evidence while SMS is not, because everybody can write from your phone.

I want everyone to know that I am a clean player.

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