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Russia’s Medvedev on to Round 3 at 2025 Madrid open without lifting racquet

The Russian player awaits in the next round the winner of a Round 2 match between Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime and Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo

MADRID, April 25. /TASS/. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev advanced to Round 3 of the 2025 Madrid Open tournament on Thursday after his Serbian opponent Laslo Djere withdrew from the tournament prior to their match.

The tournament’s official sources provided no details about why the unseeded Djere chose to abandon the tournament in Spain.

Russia’s Medvedev, playing under no flag at the tournament in Spain, now awaits in the next round the winner of a Round 2 match between 18th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime and Argentina’s qualifier Juan Manuel Cerundolo.

Medvedev, 29, 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 Madrid Open is a clay-court tournament played at the Park Manzanares in the Spanish capital between April 22 and May 4. Russia’s Andrey Rublev and Poland’s Iga Swiatek are the men's and women's reigning tournament champions, 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.

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