MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev climbed two spots in the ATP’s (the Association of Tennis Professionals) rankings of the world’s best tennis players to fifth overall, according to the ATP Rankings list released on Monday.

Last week, Rublev reached the final of the ATP’s 2023 Shanghai Masters tournament in China, where he suffered a 3-6; 6-3; 6-7 (8-10) defeat to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. The 25-year-old Russian now sits in 5th place of the ATP's weekly rankings.

Rublev 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. The player 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 as part of the Russian national team.

Rublev’s peer and fellow Russian Daniil Medvedev remained in 3rd place, unchanged from last week’s edition of the men’s singles rankings.

The Top-10 of the ATP Ranking List is as follows: 1st Novak Djokovic (Serbia), 2nd Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), 3rd Daniil Medvedev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments), 4th Jannik Sinner (Italy), 5th Andrey Rublev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments), 6th Holger Rune (Denmark), 7th Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece), 8th Casper Ruud (Norway), 9th Alexander Zverev (Germany), 10th Taylor Fritz (the United States).

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.