Mila Masic

Introduction

Mila Masic is a 28-year-old tennis player from Serbia who was sanctioned on 31 March 2026 under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP), receiving a suspension of four years and 10 months and a $20,000 fine, of which $5,000 is suspended, from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). The sanction was not a contested finding: per the ITIA, Masic, who reached a career-high world singles ranking of 875 in December 2024, admitted to fixing four of her own matches, receiving payment for those fixes, conspiring to commit corrupt offences, and failing to report corrupt approaches — all breaches of the TACP committed in 2024. She accepted an agreed sanction and waived her right to a hearing before an independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer (AHO). Having been provisionally suspended since 24 December 2025, she remains barred from the sport until 23 October 2030, subject to repayment of outstanding fines.

Background Information

Public detail about Masic is limited almost entirely to the ITIA’s sanction announcement. It records that she is Serbian, that she is 28, and that her career-high world singles ranking of 875 was reached in December 2024, the same year as the offences she admitted. Serbian readers got the same outline from Serbiantimes.info, which reported in a piece credited to Telegraf.rs that “her highest ranking on the WTA list was 875th place.” The release contains no biographical detail beyond that — no titles, no earnings, and no identification of the tournaments in which the four fixed matches were played. The agency that sanctioned her describes itself as an independent body “established by its tennis funders to promote, encourage, enhance, and safeguard the integrity of their professional tennis events,” and states plainly: “The ITIA safeguards the integrity of professional tennis worldwide.”

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. Masic’s case is not an allegation space: she admitted the offences and accepted an agreed sanction with the ITIA, waiving her hearing, so the findings below are established outcomes of the sport’s integrity process. No criminal proceeding appears in the available reporting.

The ITIA announced the sanctions on 31 March 2026 under the headline “Three suspensions issued under Tennis Anti-Corruption Program,” naming the Serbian player alongside Vanik and Kassym. Masic’s suspension of four years and 10 months and fine of $20,000, of which $5,000 is suspended, followed her “admitting to multiple breaches of the TACP in 2024.” In the ITIA’s account, she admitted to fixing four of her own matches, receiving payment for those fixes, conspiring to commit corrupt offences, and failing to report corrupt approaches. She accepted an agreed sanction with the ITIA and waived her right to a hearing before an independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer — the step that makes the case an adjudicated outcome rather than a set of allegations. Per the ITIA, “Time served under provisional suspension will be credited against the player’s period of ineligibility,” and because Masic had been provisionally suspended since 24 December 2025, her suspension will end on 23 October 2030, subject to repayment of outstanding fines.

The two co-sanctioned cases differed in kind. Vanik, a 23-year-old German who peaked at No. 1,257 in April 2024, was suspended for one year and four months and fined $1,500 after failing to co-operate with an ITIA investigation, and was also charged with failing to report knowledge or suspicion of active corruption; her period of ineligibility ends on 20 July 2027. Kassym, a national-level tennis official and administrator in Kazakhstan, received a one-year suspension and a $10,000 fine, of which $7,000 is suspended, after the ITIA uncovered evidence that he had made corrupt approaches to players in 2025 and then ceased engaging with its investigators; his sanction ends on 18 March 2027. The release describes Vanik’s case as arising from a parallel investigation and does not state that the three cases were otherwise connected.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The Serbian press treated the announcement as a scandal for the country’s tennis. Serbiantimes.info ran its report under the headline “SCANDAL SHAKES SERBIAN TENNIS: Mila Mašić admitted to fixing matches, suspended for five years!” — rounding the four-year-and-10-month ban up — and opened with the line: “Tennis is unfortunately being shaken by a new scandal in which, among others, a Serbian woman is involved.” The report summarised the same admissions and noted that she accepted the sanctions and waived a further hearing before an independent commission. The practical consequence of the sanction is sweeping: during her period of ineligibility, Masic is “prohibited from playing in, coaching at, officiating at, or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by the members of the ITIA (ATP, ITF, WTA, Tennis Australia, Fédération Française de Tennis, Wimbledon and USTA) or any national association.” Even the end date is conditional, holding only subject to repayment of outstanding fines.

Current Status

As of the ITIA’s announcement, Masic is serving a suspension of four years and 10 months that runs to 23 October 2030, subject to repayment of outstanding fines, with credit given for the provisional suspension she has been under since 24 December 2025. She is barred from any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by the ITIA’s members or any national association. There is no pending hearing and no contested case left to resolve: she accepted the agreed sanction and waived her AHO hearing, and the available record contains no appeal or reversal.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The sanction redefined what public record exists of Masic’s tennis. A career-high ranking of 875 would otherwise have kept her far outside the sport’s headlines; instead, her name now anchors an ITIA corruption announcement that gave her the longest suspension and the largest fine of the three people sanctioned that day. Her case also stands apart from her co-sanctioned pair on its substance: unlike Vanik and Kassym, who were penalised for non-cooperation, Masic admitted fixing four of her own matches and receiving payment for doing so. The exclusion is total for its duration — she cannot play, coach, officiate at, or even attend an event authorised or sanctioned by the ITIA’s members or any national association before late October 2030 at the earliest, and the date slips further if the fines go unpaid. Serbian coverage ensured the case registered at home as a stain on the national game. What happens after the ban ends is not addressed in the available record.