MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Top Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev cleared the opening round of the 2024 Australian Open on Monday after his French opponent, Terence Atmane, opted to retire over two hours into the match.

Playing in the first grand slam of his career, the Frenchman took the first set against Medvedev, but after the Russian upped his game in the following two sets, Atmane was gripped by cramps in his upper right leg and was ultimately forced to retire with the umpires recording the final score at 5-7; 6-2; 6-1; 1-0 in favor of Medvedev.

"I feel like today I played well, even losing the first set. I feel like it was good for the first match, so I hope I can only play better and better and try to win it," the tournament's official website quoted Medvedev as saying in the post-match news conference.

"He's not used to Grand Slams also yet, so a lot of nerves," Medvedev said speaking about his French opponent. "The heat is there, so physically it's not easy, I think … I'm happy that I managed to be stronger physically because it was not easy at one moment."

"At this moment he started cramping. I was, like, 'okay, it's not easy for him also'. Just have to stay in there," the Russian tennis star continued.

"I was two times in the final, and one I was really close to winning, so I really hope I can show my best tennis one time here, at least one, and win it," Medvedev, who is playing in his 8th Australian Open, added.

The Russian, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, is set to face off in the next round against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, who defeated Patrick Kypson of the United States in his opening match wildcard.

Medvedev, 27, is currently third in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings List. In 2022, the top Russian racket was ranked the No. 1 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 won five of these 20 titles just in 2023 alone. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.

The 2024 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 14-28 and has a purse of $57.8 mln in prize money up for grabs. The opening tournament of the annual Grand Slam series in Australia marks its 112th edition this year. Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.

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 of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from 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.