NEW YORK, March 10. /TASS/. Russia’s top tennis player Daniil Medvedev reached the Round 4 of the 2025 Indian Wells Open, where he is now set to clash with Tommy Paul of the United States.
In the Round 3 match on late Sunday, which lasted barely for some 10 minutes, Medvedev’s opponent Alex Michelsen from the United States retired with the scoreboard flashing only 2-0 in favor of the Russian, who plays under a neutral status at the tournament.
Fifth-seed Medvedev is now set to play against US player Tommy Paul (10th-seed) in the US-hosted tennis tournament’s Round 4 for the spot in the quarterfinals.
Medvedev, 29, is currently sixth in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings. 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.
The 2025 Indian Wells tournament is played on outdoor hard courts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California, the United States, between March 5 and 16 and offers almost $9.6 million in prize money. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Poland’s Iga Swiatek are the reigning champions in men and women’s competitions respectively.
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.