LONDON, July 2. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev advanced on Wednesday to the third round of the 2025 Wimbledon tennis tournament in London after outplaying Lloyd Harris from South Africa.

In a match that lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes, the 14th-seeded Rublev, who is playing under a neutral status at the Grand Slam tournament in London, lost the opening set and then had recovered to outplay his unseeded South African opponent Harris with the final score of 6-7 (1-7); 6-4; 7-6 (7-5); 6-3.

The Russian player will now face unseeded French Adrian Mannarino, who defeated earlier in Round 2 his countryman Valentin Royer (113th in ATP Rankings) 6-4; 6-4; 5-7; 7-6 (7-1).

Rublev, 27, is currently ranked 14th in the ATP Rankings list. He won 17 career ATP singles tournament titles and four more in men’s doubles. Rublev also appeared in numerous Grand Slam tournaments, albeit never advancing beyond the quarterfinals.

The Russian tennis player 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.

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.