MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev started off this year’s Wimbledon with a win over Arthur Fery of the United Kingdom.

The third-seeded Medvedev, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, defeated the British wild card 7-5; 6-4; 6-3 and in the next round, he will face the winner of the duel between Adrian Mannarino of France and Russia’s Alexander Shevchenko.

Speaking after the match against 20-year-old Fery, Medvedev said he was nervous to play against a new tennis player.

"I was pretty nervous. I said good luck to Arthur [at the net]. He is just starting out and I wish him well," the tournament’s official website quoted Medvedev as saying after the match.

Medvedev, 27, is currently third in the ATP Rankings List. In 2022, Medvedev was the number one ranked tennis player in the world for 16 weeks. He is the 2021 US Open Champion and has 20 ATP tournament titles under his belt. He has won five of those 20 titles this year. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup for the Russian national team as well as the ATP Cup.

This season’s third Grand Slam tennis tournament, Wimbledon, kicked off on July 3 and unlike the previous edition of the tournament last year, Russian players were allowed to compete, but under certain conditions.

The Wimbledon tournament, the most prestigious out of the four Grand Slam tournaments, has been held annually in London since 1877. It took place last year between June 27 and July 10. This year’s Wimbledon runs between July 3 and 16.

Russia is represented in men’s singles by Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Aslan Karatsev. Russia’s Karen Khachanov announced earlier that he would skip this year’s tournament because of a bad back.

The women’s draw includes six Russians: Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova, Lyudmila Samsonova, Yekaterina Aleksandrova, Anastasia Potapova and Mirra Andreeva.