LONDON, June 30. TASS/. Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi on Monday upset Russia’s top-racquet and former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in the opening round of this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament.
Bonzi, who is currently ranked 64th in the ATP World Rankings, took down the ninth-seeded Medvedev, who participates in international tennis tournaments under a neutral status, 7-6 (7-2); 3-6; 7-6 (7-3); 6-2.
Speaking about his big win over Medvedev in the Grand Slam opener, Bonzi said: "This is special for me today."
"This is my first Top 10 win at a Slam," the tournament’s official website quoted the French player as saying after his match against Russia’s Medvedev.
"Obviously, it is always special at this tournament," Bonzi continued. "The atmosphere, all the courts and the grass, everything really."
"I love this place, so it’s very special and Daniil is a great player. He has reached two semi-finals," the French player noted. "I knew it was a tough match, but sometimes it is better to play this kind of player in the first round.
Sweating out his three-hour, seven-minute victory over the Russian tennis star, Bonzi is now into the second round at Wimbledon for the third time in his professional career.
"Anything can happen, so I’m very happy with the win," Bonzi added.
According to ATP’s official website "Bonzi struck cleanly from the baseline and found great success behind his own serve, which proved clinical in the first and third set tie-breaks."
Bonzi, 29, has an ATP title under his belt and his best results playing at the Grand Slam tournaments was to reach Round 3 at the 2023 US Open as well as Round Three at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2025.
The Frenchman is now set to play in the next round of this year’s Wimbledon tournament against Australia’s Jordan Thompson (26th-ranked by ATP), who defeated earlier in the day Vit Kopriva from the Czech Republic (78th-ranked by ATP).
Russia’s Medvedev, 29, spent sixteen weeks as the number one player in the world in 2022 and is now ranked 9th in the ATP Rankings. 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 Russian player has not won a single ATP tournament since 2023 when he took home the title in Rome, Italy.
This year’s Wimbledon takes place between June 30 and July 13 and offers a total of 50 million Euro [some $57.4 million] in prize money. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic are the reigning Wimbledon champions in men’s and women’s singles, 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.