NEW YORK, August 25. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev was eliminated in the opening round of the 2025 US Open, which kicked off on Sunday.
The 13th-seeded Russian, who is playing under neutral status at the tournament, suffered a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(5), 0-6, 6-4 defeat against unseeded Benjamin Bonzi from France.
Speaking after the match with Medvedev, the 29-year-old French player said: "I gave all my heart on the court and I have the win today."
"I'm very proud of myself, the scenario of the match, the match point in the third. Then Daniil playing great and taking full advantage in the fourth. It's kind of crazy, this match. For me it's like my best victory ever. It's very special to do it here," the ATP official website quoted Bonzi as saying.
This is Medvedev’s first defeat in the first round of the US Open since 2017, when he lost to Canadian Denis Shapovalov. Last year, the Russian reached the quarterfinals of the tourney and was knocked out by the eventual champion Jannik Sinner of Italy.
This year has been a bad one for Medvedev at Grand Slams. He won only one match in the four majors - in the opening round of the 2025 Australian Open.
Commenting on his play on the biggest stages this year (2025 Australian Open, 2025 French Open, 2025 Wimbledon and 2025 US Open) Medvedev said after his match with Bonzi: "I'm playing bad and in important moments, even worse."
"Everything: serve, return, volley, whatever… I just need to play better, and I'm going to try to do it next year," ATP’s press office cited him as saying.
Russia’s Medvedev, 29, spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one in 2022. Currently, he’s the 13th-ranked player in the world. He previously won the 2021 US Open and is a 20-time ATP champion. He won five of those 20 titles in 2023. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.
Medvedev is experiencing a title drought now, not winning a single ATP tournament since a 2023 event in Rome, Italy.
Based on the current statistics and Medvedev’s recent results, the Russian tennis star (2,370 points in the ATP Rankings) is likely to fall out of the Top-15 or even out of the Top-20 after the 2025 US Open is over.
The 2025 US Open is being held on outdoor hard courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York between August 24 and September 7. The tournament will hand out $90 million in prize money. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka from Belarus are the reigning 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 moved to exclude 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 participating in the 2022 Davis Cup and the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.