MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Karen Khachanov has reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 ATP Erste Bank Open tennis tournament in Austria’s Vienna.

In a match that lasted for 65 minutes, Khachanov (8th-seed) breezed past his unseeded opponent Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic with straight sets win of 6-3, 6-1.

Khachanov, 27, who is currently ranked 16th in the ATP Rankings, is the winner of five ATP titles. His best performance in the Grand Slam series was when he reached the semifinal rounds at the 2022 US Open and the 2023 Australian Open. Khachanov also clinched the silver medal in men’s singles at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The 2023 Erste Bank Open tennis tournament is part of the ATP 500 series and is played on indoor hard courts at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna between October 23 and 29 October. The tournament offers 2.409 million euros (some $2.6 million) in prize money up for grabs. The tournament’s reigning champion is Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.

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.