SYDNEY, January 26. /TASS/. Top Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev has advanced to the final of the 2024 Australian Open after coming back from two sets down to defeat Germany’s Alexander Zverev on Friday.

The marathon match, which lasted for four hours and 18 minutes, saw Medvedev eventually walk away victorious after a grueling five-set win 5-7; 3-6; 7-6 (7-4); 7-6 (7-5); 6-3 against his German opponent.

"I was a little bit lost but then in the third set I kept saying to myself, 'if I lose this match then I want to be proud of myself'," the tournament’s official website quoted Medvedev as saying after the match. "If I lose, I lose, but I won so I am very proud."

"In the third set I felt like I was tired physically. I knew I couldn’t run for 40 shots like in the first set, so I said 'let’s get more aggressive'," the Russian tennis player added.

Medvedev, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, is now set to face off in the final of the 2024 Australian Open against Italy’s Jannik Sinner, who defeated defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia earlier in the day in the other semifinal match.

Zverev, 26, is currently ranked 6th in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings and has won 21 ATP tournaments in his career. Playing at Grand Slam tournaments, Zverev’s best result was reaching the final of the 2020 US Open. The German tennis player also won a gold medal at the 2021 Olympic Games in men’s singles.

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.