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Russia’s Safiullin wins again at 2024 Shanghai Masters tournament, to face Djokovic next

Safiullin, 27, is currently 61st in the ATP Rankings

SHANGHAI, October 8. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Roman Safiullin is moving on at the 2024 ATP Shanghai Masters tournament in China after defeating Frances Tiafoe of the United States in Round 3 on Tuesday.

The Russian, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, battled back from a set and a break deficit to upset 13th-seed Tiafoe in three sets 5-7; 7-5; 7-6 (7-5). Safiullin is now set to play in the next round against ageless wonder Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

Earlier in the day World’s No. 4 Djokovic breezed past Italy’s Flavio Cobolli in almost one hour with the confident straight sets win 6-1; 6-2.

Djokovic, 37, shares the all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles with women’s great Margaret Court. However, Court won 13 out of her 24 Grand Slam champion’s titles before the Open Era (since 1968). On the men’s side, Djokovic’s closest contender in terms of Grand Slam titles is Spain’s Rafael Nadal with 22.

In addition to his 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic has won 100 ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) titles, a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 2010 Davis Cup.

Safiullin, 27, is currently 61st in the ATP Rankings. He has never won an ATP title. In Grand Slams, the best he has done is reaching the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2023.

The 2024 Shanghai Masters has the ATP 1,000 classification and it is played on outdoor hard courts at Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in Shanghai, China between October 2 and 13, 2024. The tournament offers $8.9 million in prize money and its reigning champion is Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.

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 on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in 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.

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