NEW YORK, September 1. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev is set to face France’s Arthur Rinderknech in Round 3 of the US Open tennis tournament, which kicked off in New York on August 28.
Rublev, seeded 8th at the tournament, cleared the 2nd round of the prestigious Grand Slam tournament in the United States winning 6-4; 6-3; 3-6; 6-1 late on Thursday night over unseeded Gael Monfils of France.
In his Round 2 match, which also took place on Thursday evening, Rinderknech faced off against Italy’s Matteo Berrettini and was leading 6-4; 5-3 after two sets before the Italian decided to retire due to injury.
Rublev, 25, is currently ranked 8th in the ATP World Rankings and has 14 ATP tournament titles to his name, two of those wins coming this year. He has also appeared in numerous Grand Slam tournaments, albeit never advancing beyond the quarterfinals.
While playing for the Russian national team, he took home the gold at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in mixed doubles (with teammate Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova) and also won the 2021 Davis Cup.
The 2023 US Open is being held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York between August 28 and September 10. The tournament has $65 mln in prize money up for grabs. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Poland’s Iga Swiatek are the tournament's defending champions in men’s and women's singles, respectively.
Tennis players from Russia and Belarus are participating at this year's Open under a neutral status due to the current sanctions regime.
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 2022, 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 while also cancelling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.
On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, 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 only under a neutral status.