MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Russia’s top tennis player Daniil Medvedev has made it to the Round of 16 of the 2024 Miami Open tennis tournament in the United States, where he will face off against Germany’s Dominik Koepfer.

In the Round of 32 at the tournament in the US State of Florida, it took the Russian 1 hour and 21 minutes to take down his opponent from Great Britain, Cameron Norrie, in straight sets 7-5; 6-1.

Speaking to the media after the match against Norrie, Medvedev said: "I generally think that the serve was not too bad. The first serve was quite good… Cameron is someone who returns well, so I felt like I was still there."

"The positive side is that when he came back in the first set, he had the momentum going, I managed to regroup myself and win it 7-5 without even going to the tie-break," the official ATP website quoted the Russian tennis player as saying after his match against Norrie, who is currently ranked 31st in the ATP World Rankings.

"In general, even when you lose your serve, when you break the guy six times in two sets it's very positive," according to Medvedev.

The Russian player also commented on his aggressive playing style during the match against the British player as, according to official statistics, Medvedev won eight out of twelve points at the net.

"Against Cameron it's not that easy to go to the net," Medvedev said. "I feel like he gives you a medium ball where you feel like you can do it, and then he likes to pass you, a little bit like I do some times."

"So I was quite cautious to come to net, but when I had the chance I had to do it. And I feel like I'm improving a lot at the net this year, and it's a part of my game where I want to improve, so I'm pretty happy about it," the Russian player added.

Playing later in the day, Germany’s Koepfer celebrated a comeback win over France’s Ugo Humbert in a match that lasted almost 2 hours and 15 minutes and ended 3-6; 6-4; 6-3 in favor of the German.

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 Miami Open tennis tournament is classified as an ATP Masters 1000 event and a WTA (the Women Tennis Association) 1000 event. It is played on hard courts at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, between March 19 and 31 and offers some $9 million and $8.8 million in ATP and WTA competitions correspondingly.

Medvedev is the tournament's reigning champion in men’s singles and Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic won last year's women's crown.

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.