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Russia’s Medvedev clears opener of 2025 ATP China Open in straight sets

In the next round, Daniil Medvedev will play against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina

BEIJING, September 26. /TASS/. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev cleared the opening round of the 2025 China Open in Beijing with a confident straight-sets win on Friday.

The 8th-seeded Russian, playing under a neutral status at the tournament, breezed past unseeded Cameron Norrie from Great Britain 6-3; 6-4.

In the next round, Medvedev will play against Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who took down Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli 6-1; 6-3 in his first round match.

Russia’s Medvedev, 29, spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one in 2022. Currently, he’s the 18th-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.

The 2025 China Open is an ATP 500 professional tennis tournament. Played on outdoor hard courts at the National Tennis Center in Beijing between September 25 and October 1, this year’s tourney offers over $4 million in prize money. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz is the tournament’s reigning champion.

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.