MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS, Andrey Kartashov/. The Russian Olympic team of tennis players has arrived for the training camp in the country’s eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in order to better adjust to the climate zone of the Games in Tokyo this summer, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation (RTF) told TASS on Tuesday.
"The team has arrived and begun training already," RTF President Shamil Tarpishchev said in an interview with TASS.
"However, [Daniil] Medvedev and [Anastasia] Pavlyuchenkova are not at the camp and they will join the team later as they have to settle some issues regarding their traveling visas," the Russian tennis chief added.
The previously announced roster of the Russian Olympic tennis team lists players in the following competitions:
Ladies Singles: Veronika Kudermetova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Yekaterina Alexandrova.
Men’s Singles: Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Aslan Karatsev.
Ladies’ Doubles: Vera Zvonareva in a pair with Yelena Vesnina and Kudermetova in a pair with Pavlyuchenkova.
Men’s Doubles: Rublev is paired with Khachanov and Medvedev will play as a duo with Karatsev.
A total of 64 players, across both men and women’s competitions, are allowed to take part in the Olympic Games in Japan this summer. Fifty-six tennis players are selected based on the ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) and WTA (the Women Tennis Association) ranking lists, while the International Tennis Federation (ITF) issues eight more invitations for players in each category.
The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Japan’s capital of Tokyo will be held this year between July 23 and August 8. In March 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan for one year due to the spread of COVID-19.
As of today, Japan is ranked 34th globally in terms of reported COVID-19 cases, which currently stand at over 822,280. A total of over 14,950 people have died of the novel coronavirus infection there, while more than 788,130 have recovered from the illness.
On July 6, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) published an approved list of 335 athletes, who were selected to represent the country at the Summer Olympic Games. The Olympic delegation of Russian athletes in Tokyo will include 185 female and 150 male athletes. The selected flag bearers of the national team at the opening ceremony of the Games in Tokyo are Russia’s 2016 Olympic champion in saber fencing Sofya Velikaya and Maxim Mikhailov, the 2012 Olympic champion in the men’s volleyball competition.
Russian athletes will be competing in Tokyo under the flag and logo of the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem. The national anthem of Russia is also under sanctions at the Olympics in Japan.
Sanctions against Russian sports
The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld on December 17, 2020 WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
Following the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period.
The national anthem of Russia was also prohibited from being played at international sports tournaments over the course of the next two years, even at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this summer.
The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.