PARIS, July 24. /TASS/. Russian tennis players Daniil Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva have been paired to play in the mixed doubles competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, which kick off in the French capital of Paris this Friday, the press office of the 2024 Olympics Organizing Committee announced on Wednesday.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a list of Russian athletes allowed to participate under a neutral status at the 2024 Olympics in Paris and it included seven tennis players.

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Roman Safiullin, Pavel Kotov, Yekaterina Alexandrova, Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider will play in singles competitions and Yelena Vesnina/Alexandrova, Andreeva/Shnaider, Medvedev/Safiullin will be represented in doubles competitions.

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.

Earlier in the day, Andreeva reached the semifinals of the 2024 WTA Iasi Open tennis tournament in Romania after defeating in straight sets Lea Boskovic of Croatia 6-2; 6-0.

Speaking to a correspondent from WTA’s press office on Tuesday, Andreeva said she looked forward to playing on courts in Paris during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. "It’s the first time I’m going to play at the Olympics and I’m very excited about it. In Paris, I like those courts, the facilities. So, let’s see what will happen," she said.

Andreeva, 17, is currently ranked 32nd in the WTA (the Women's Tennis Association) Rankings. Earlier this year she reached the semifinals of the 2024 French Open. Last year, in Grand Slams she reached the 3rd round of the French Open, made it all the way to the 4th round at Wimbledon and then battled her way into Round 2 of the US Open. In 2023, the WTA named Andreeva the rookie of the year.

Medvedev, 28, is currently fifth 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.

IOC’s regulations against Russia

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.

The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the upcoming Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.

On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.

The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.

The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.