Roger Federer and David Ferrer in Shanghai on Saturday (Reuters)

Milan: Italy’s Alessio Di Mauro has been banned for nine months after becoming the first professional to be caught in a betting crackdown, the ATP said on Saturday.

The world No. 124, who made the Australian and French Open first rounds this year, has also been fined $60,000 after an ATP probe launched in April found he wagered on other players’ matches between November 2, 2006 and June 12, 2007.

No attempt was made to fix results but an independent hearing officer decided he had committed an offence under the ATP anti-corruption programme.

He could have faced a maximum three-year suspension.

“This ruling underlines the ATP’s stated policy of not tolerating players, associates or staff gambling on tennis,” Gayle David Bradshaw, ATP’s administrator of rules and competition said in a statement.

“The ATP requested that the maximum sentence be imposed and whilst we would have preferred a longer suspension, we recognise that the independent anti-corruption hearing officer has to administer sanctions related to the specifics of the case and not as a general prevention.

“This is the first player to be sanctioned under the programme and we found no evidence of any attempt by the player to bet on his own matches. We also found no evidence of any attempt to affect the outcome of any matches.”

Reacting to that, world No. 1 Roger Federer said on Saturday he supported bans for tennis players found guilty of betting on matches.

“When we talk about the gambling issue obviously that is one thing we are going to get to the core of,” Federer said on the eve of the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup. “We are going to solve the issue. Honestly to bet on tennis as a tennis player I just don’t think that’s right. You should be fined or banned.

“How long? That’s up to other people to decide but I think we should be very hard on these people. At the very top of the game we don’t have problems,” said Federer. “I think it’s more low-ranked players maybe who do have the temptation.”

The Swiss added: “I’ve never been approached, I’ve never been on a website. You can bet on other stuff — there’s enough other things you can do.”

Davydenko, who was fined $2,000 last month for not trying hard enough during a match in St Petersburg, was still clearly unhappy on Saturday about being implicated in the betting controversy.

“It has been difficult,” shrugged the Russian after investigators interviewed his wife and brother over allegations that the player had been involved in match fixing. (Reuters)