MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. /TASS/. Russia’s top racquet Daniil Medvedev slid two spots in the ATP’s latest (Association of Tennis Professionals) Rankings of the world’s best tennis players, falling out of the Top-5 for the first time since last March, according to the newest ATP Rankings released on Monday.
Playing at this year’s opening Grand Slam series tournament, the 2025 Australian Open, Medvedev barely beat his first round opponent, Thai wildcard Kasidit Samrej and then failed to clear Round 2 losing to Learner Tien from the United States. The Russian, who is playing under a neutral status at international tennis tournaments, is now 7th in the ATP Rankings with 3,780.
In 2022, the top Russian racquet 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.
Another Russian tennis star, Andrey Rublev, dropped to 10th place in the ATP Rankings with 3,130 points after failing to clear his opening match at the 2025 Australian Open.
Rublev has won 16 career ATP singles tournament titles in singles and four more in men’s doubles. He has also appeared in numerous Grand Slam tournaments, albeit never advancing beyond the quarterfinals. Rublev took home the gold at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in mixed doubles (with teammate Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova) and also won the 2021 Davis Cup as part of the Russian national team.
Italy’s Jannik Sinner defended his Australian Open champion’s title and remained in the top of the ATP Rankings with 11,830 points. He is followed by Germany’s Alexander Zverev with 8,135 points in 2nd place and the top trio is rounded up by Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (7,010 points).
The rest of the ATP Rankings Top 10 is as follows: 4th Taylor Fritz (the United States, 5,050 points); 5th Casper Ruud (Norway, 4,160); 6th Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 3,900); 7th Daniil Medvedev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments, 3,780); 8th Alex de Minaur (Australia, 3,735); 9th Tommy Paul (the United States, 3,495); 10th Andrey Rublev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments, 3,130).
The 2025 Australian Open tournament was played on hard courts at Melbourne Park on January 12-26 and had a purse of $59.7 million in prize money up for grabs. The season’s first Grand Slam this year marked the 113th edition of the tournament. Italy’s Jannik Sinner is now the champion in men’s singles and Madison Keys from the United States won the tournament in women’s singles.
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 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.