Stefan Milićević, a Serbian tennis player, was only fifteen years old when he said his eyes were firmly set on the ATP Top 10. Now, after being handed a 24-year ban, those dreams appear to be over. By the time he becomes eligible to return, he will be 53.

Milićević, who reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 1,338 in 2014, now faces a ban that will keep him out of professional tennis until 2050 after being charged with fixing six matches, including five in which he competed. The agency also charged him with trying to fix six further matches between 2022 and 2024.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced the sanction on Thursday and fined him $70,000. His ban took effect on October 9, 2026, and is scheduled to run until October 8, 2050.

The investigation also found that Milićević recruited or tried to recruit other players “as part of a corrupt network during the same period, resulting in a number of other players fixing matches,” the ITIA said. The announcement did not say which matches were fixed, name the players he approached, or put a figure on any profit.

The agency further came forward to say that Milićević did not cooperate with the investigation in 2026, despite “seven separate ITIA attempts, through multiple channels, to raise a response from the player.” He also stayed silent when the agency presented its findings.

From Serbian Junior Champion to a college tennis standout

Born in Belgrade, Serbia, on April 26, 1997, Milićević started playing tennis at the age of five at Tennis Club Olimp. By January 2013, when he was 15, he had won Serbia’s indoor under-16 championship.

In an interview with Serbian tennis publication Tenis Uživo, he acknowledged the expectations set by the likes of “Novak, Ana, Janko,” adding:

“Of course, what they have done in our tennis is very stimulating; they have proven that a small country, not so occupied with tennis, can produce quality players. As for the pressure and expectations, they are therefore greater.”

His early record suggested considerable promise. During that junior period, he said he had won six singles tournaments and four doubles tournaments. He had won 30 of 38 matches, taking a set 6–0 on eight occasions. Rather than compare his game directly with Novak Djokovic, he described himself as an aggressive player who tried to prevent opponents from taking control, while also being comfortable defending, per Tenis Uživo.

At the time, his stated ambition was to reach the ATP Top 10. He was preparing to compete in Serbia’s under-18 national championship, followed by a trip to Belarus with the national team and a tour of Morocco.

Milićević played college tennis at the University of Minnesota before coaching at DePaul University in Chicago. He also competed in doubles on the ITF World Tennis Tour, reaching the final in Osijek, Croatia, with Marino Jakić in August 2023. 

His four-year college career produced 81 singles victories and 41 doubles wins. He earned All-Big Ten Second Team recognition as a junior before being named to the First Team in his senior season in 2020. He also finished the 2019 fall season ranked No. 33 nationally in collegiate singles, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Further highlights included winning the 2017 ITA Central Regional singles title, which earned him automatic qualification for the ITA Fall Nationals. He reached the Round of 32 at that national event in 2017 and returned in 2019 after finishing runner-up at the Central Regional. He also qualified for the ITA All-American tournament for the second time in his career during the 2019 fall season.

His final college season included a notable victory over UC Santa Barbara’s Joseph Guillin, who was ranked No. 8 nationally at the time, and another against Pepperdine’s Corrado Summaria, ranked No. 69. Those back-to-back ranked wins helped Milićević earn the team’s first Big Ten Athlete of the Week award since 2017. He ended his collegiate career ranked No. 54 nationally by the ITA.

His time at Minnesota also included academic recognition. Milićević earned Academic All-Big Ten honours and was named to the 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-District At-Large team. His studies focused on supply chain and business management, combining his academic interests with his plans to remain connected to tennis.

His ambitions had already begun to extend beyond playing. In a September 2019 interview with Minnesota Athletics, Milićević said he had spent the summer in Palo Alto, California, working as both a tennis coach and a supply chain analyst, before returning to Belgrade for a few weeks. He described spending time with teammates during practices and matches as one of his favourite parts of the preceding season.

As he approached graduation, Milićević was considering pursuing a master’s degree in either the United States or England, depending on the programmes available. Although he did not expect to turn professional at the time, he hoped to build a career that combined supply chain management with tennis. Having played the sport for 19 years, he described it as something that had come to define him.

He played in 22 professional tournaments between 2013 and 2023. And across 2022 to 2024, when the offenses happened, he played 11 professional matches, all on the third tier of the tour, according to the NY Post, citing World Tennis records. He never climbed above No. 1,338 and played only in lower-tier events.

Milićević’s suspension also prevents him from coaching at or attending events organized or sanctioned by the ATP, WTA, Grand Slam tournaments, World Tennis, or any national tennis association.

The ITIA issued a Notice of Major Offense on September 24, 2026. Since Milićević did not respond to the charges, his case did not go before an anti-corruption hearing officer, and the sanction was imposed without a written hearing decision. The agency applied the penalty under the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program and its sanctioning guidelines once he failed to answer.

An ITIA spokesperson said the decision was based on the seriousness of the match-fixing offenses and Milićević’s attempts to recruit other players. The BBC further reported that “the severity of Milicevic’s sanction is partly down to a lack of co-operation in the investigation.”

Other Tennis Players Who Received Long Bans for Match-Fixing 

French tennis player Quentin Folliot was banned for 20 years in December 2025, while Chinese tennis player Pang Renlong received a 12-year ban after committing 22 offenses over five months.

Folliot, 26, was found to have committed 27 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program. The ITIA also identified him as a central figure in a network of players working with a match-fixing syndicate. 

Folliot’s case involved allegations relating to 11 matches played between 2022 and 2024. He denied the charges, but an independent hearing upheld 27 of the 30 alleged breaches, covering 10 matches. His sanction included a $70,000 fine and an order to repay more than $44,000 in corrupt payments. He was the sixth player sanctioned in the investigation into the network

With Milicevic, Folliot and Pang all facing lengthy bans, their cases raise questions about how match-fixing will be addressed in tennis and whether further investigations could lead to more players facing similar punishment.