MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. American tennis player Sebastian Korda defeated Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev with straight sets win in Round 3 of the 2023 Australian Open Championship on Friday.

US player Korda, seeded 29th at the tournament in Melbourne beat Russia’s 7th-seed Medvedev, who is also the last year’s runner up at the tournament in Australia, in three sets: 7-6 (9-7); 6-3; 7-6 (7-4).

"I think it was a match where he was just better than me," ATP’s official website quoted Medvedev as saying at the post-match press conference. "Right now I'm struggling a little bit to win these kinds of matches against opponents that can play at a good level."

Speaking about the game of his US opponent Korda, Medvedev said that: "The most difficult thing is that he hits the ball very strong."

"Probably one of the strongest hitters," he continued speaking about Korda. "Also takes [the ball] very early. There are some other guys playing like this, but they miss more than him. And he didn't miss that much."

"His game is kind of different from everybody because he’s very aggressive and takes the ball very early. A little bit maybe like Novak."

Medvedev, 26, is currently ranked 8th in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Rankings. In 2022, he was the number one ranked tennis player in the world for 16 weeks. He is the 2021 US Open and 2020 ATP Finals Champion in addition to being the winner of 15 ATP tournaments.

The 2022 Australian Open tournament is played on hard courts at Melbourne Park between January 16 and 29 and it has $53.4 million in prize money up for grabs. The opening tournament of the annual Grand Slam series in Australia marks its 111th edition this year. Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Australia’s Ashleigh Barty are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles respectively.

The Russian men's singles champions at the Australian Open tournaments were Yevgeny Kafelnikov (1999) and Marat Safin (2005). Russia’s Daniil Medvedev reached the final of the tournament in Melbourne last year, but eventually lost to Rafael Nadal of Spain.

Russian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February last year, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations and also canceled all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in these countries.

On March 14, 2022 the ITF also confirmed its ban on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but under a neutral status.