MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russia’s top-ranked tennis player Daniil Medvedev has cleared his way on Thursday to the quarterfinals of the 2023 ATP Erste Bank Open tennis tournament in Austria’s Vienna.

In a match that lasted for over two hours, Medvedev, who is the tournament’s reigning champion, outplayed Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov with the 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.

"It was a great match," the tournament’s official website quoted Medvedev as saying after the match. "He started really well and I was missing just a little bit too much.

"He [Dimitrov] was ahead and starting from the second set I started to play better, to run better, to put more balls in the court and play faster when I needed to," Medvedev stated.

"I managed to have small control of the match, but it was very tough and could have gone either way. I’m very happy I managed to do it," he added.

Russia’s top racquet is now set to face in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Vienna his compatriot Karen Khachanov, who defeated on Wednesday Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic with straight sets win of 6-3, 6-1.

Medvedev, 27, is currently third in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings List. In 2022, the top Russian racket 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 just this year. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.

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.

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.