DUBAI, February 28. /TASS/. Russia’s top tennis player Daniil Medvedev advanced to the quarterfinals round of the 2024 ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) Dubai Open Tennis tournament after defeating on Wednesday Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.

In a match that lasted for nearly one hour and 20 minutes, Medvedev, who is playing as a neutral at the tournament, defeated his Italian opponent with the final score of 3-6; 6-3; 6-3.

"I went on court and was not feeling right. I was too nervous and too tight, which does not happen often to me," the ATP official website quoted Medvedev as saying after his match against Sonego. "I was making a lot of mistakes and had nerves."

"Sometimes it takes a set to calm down and if I continue to do what I did in the first set, that is not going to work. I just had to change, to be more calm, and if that doesn't work it is his day, but it worked," he added.

The Russian is now set to face off in the quarterfinals of the tournament against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Medvedev, 28, is currently fourth in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings. In 2022, the top Russian racket spent sixteen weeks as the number one player in the world. He is the 2021 US Open Champion and has 20 ATP tournament titles under his belt. He won five of these 20 titles in 2023. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.

The 2024 Dubai Open Tennis tournament is an ATP 500 competition on the organization’s calendar and takes place at the Aviation Club Tennis Centre in Dubai between February 26 and March 2.

The tournament is played on outdoor hard courts and offers over $2.9 million in prize money. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev is the reigning champion of the tournament.

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 canceling 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.