TENNIS prodigy Youssef Hossam has been banned for life aged 21 after being found guilty of match fixing.
The Tennis Integrity Unit adjudged Hossam to have committed 21 breaches of anti-corruption rules between 2015 and 2019.
It was also ruled he conspired to commit betting-related offences within lower levels of tennis.
Youssef had been provisionally suspended since May but that ban is now permanent.
The Egyptian committed eight cases of match fixing, six cases of facilitating gambling and two cases of soliciting other players not to use their best efforts.
He was also found guilty of three failures to report corrupt approaches and two failures to co-operate with a TIU investigation.
A TIU statment read: “Mr Hossam conspired with other parties to carry out an extensive campaign of betting-related corruption at the lower levels of professional tennis. This involved 21 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program.
“As a result of his conviction, Mr Hossam is now permanently excluded from competing in or attending any sanctioned tennis event organised or recognised by the governing bodies of the sport.”
BANNED OF BROTHERS
The TIU ruling comes two years after Hossam’s older brother Karim was also slapped with a lifetime ban from tennis.
He was found guilty of 16 offences but a BBC investigation suggested he was still able to corrupt the sport even after his penalty was confirmed.
Younger sibling Yousseff is currently ranked 820th in the world but in December 2017 reached his career-high of No291.
Big things were expected of him from his younger days as he broke into the top ten junior world rankings and won nine ITF Futures tournaments.
However, he was unable to make the step into senior tennis and did not appear on the ATP Tour.
Hossam did feature in seven Davis Cup ties for his country, winning nine out of 11 matches, and earned a total of £45,000 from his playing career.
His last match came in the first round of the ITF M15 Sharm El Sheikh event in his home country in April 2019.
Despite being top seed, Hossam lost 3-6 6-3 6-3 to Italian qualifier Mattia Bellucci.
