PARIS, July 29. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Roman Safiullin reached on Monday Round 3 of the tennis tournament at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
The Russian, who is playing under a neutral-status at the tournament outplayed in straight sets 6-0; 7-6 (7-1) Argentina’s unseeded Tomas Etcheverry.
In the next round, the 26-year-old Safiullin is set to face off against the winner of the 2nd Round Olympic encounter between Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz (2nd-seed) and unseeded Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands.
Safiullin, is currently ranked 66th in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings. His best result playing at the Grand Slam tournaments is the quarterfinals stage of the 2023 Wimbledon and he has no ATP titles under his belt.
Two weeks ago, 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 were allowed to play in singles competitions and Yelena Vesnina/Alexandrova, Andreeva/Shnaider, Medvedev/Safiullin were set to go playing in doubles competitions.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.
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.