MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Russia’s top tennis star Daniil Medvedev has been selected to play for the European team at the 2024 Laver Cup, the tournament’s press office said in a statement on Thursday.
"Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev and World No. 6 Alexander Zverev are set to join Spanish superstar Carlos Alcaraz on Captain Bjorn Borg’s Team Europe at this year’s Laver Cup being held at Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin from September 20-22," the statement reads.
"Team Europe is super motivated to win back the Cup in Berlin," the tournament’s official website quoted Borg as saying. "With Daniil, Sascha [Alexander Zverev] and Carlos on my team, I think we have an excellent chance of making that happen. The guys have had an incredible start to the year, and this is a really strong first half of our lineup. I’m thrilled to have these champions in the fold for 2024."
Russian player Medvedev said after joining the European team: "For me, the most exciting thing about Laver Cup is always the team spirit, because it’s very rare that I get to play team competitions in tennis."
"Having Carlos and Sascha on our team will help a lot because they are two of the best players in the world and I’m really excited to try and get Team Europe back to their winning ways," Russia’s tennis star, who competes at international tennis tournaments under a neutral status, added.
The Laver Cup is an international indoor hard court men's team tennis tournament played between Team Europe and Team World. It scheduled to be hosted this year by the German capital of Berlin between September 20 and 22.
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.
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.