July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Mathieu Montcourt, a 24-year-old professional French tennis player, died last night of undetermined causes just as he began a ban for gambling on the sport.

His death was announced by the French Tennis Federation on its Web site.

Paris-born Montcourt, who was ranked as high as 104th by the ATP World Tour, and who was rated the 19th player in France, had begun a ban yesterday for gambling on tennis matches in 2004. He hadn’t bet on his own matches.

Montcourt was ranked 119th in the world, having won $81,418 so far this year and played his last match in the semifinals of a Challenger Tour clay court event in Rijeka, Croatia. He earned more than $374,000 since turning professional in 2002. He was eliminated in the second round of the French Open in May by Radek Stepanek in four sets.

The righthander played mostly on clay court.

Earlier in May, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced his eight-week suspension for online betting on tennis matches by two weeks. The Lausanne-based court upheld a $12,000 fine.

Montcourt was suspended by the ATP World Tour, the governing body of the men’s tennis tour, on Aug. 11 for betting $192 on 36 tennis events between June and September 2005. In his appeal to the Swiss court, Montcourt argued that his suspension and fine should be reduced because he wasn’t aware of the rules at the time.

Although the CAS said the player should have been aware of the rules, the court cut his suspension because he had gambled only small amounts and never bet on his own matches.

A year ago, tennis investigators found 45 matches in the past five years that needed to be studied because of “unusual betting patterns,” the sport’s governing bodies said at the time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 7, 2009 11:25 EDT