BEIJING, September 26. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev was defeated in the opening round of the 2025 China Open tournament in Beijing.
The 6th-seeded Russian, playing under a neutral status at the tournament, yielded to unseeded Flavio Cobolli from Italy 6-7 (3-7); 3-6. The Italian player is now set to play against Learner Tien from the United States in the next round.
Rublev, 27, is currently ranked 14th in the ATP Rankings list. He has won 17 career ATP singles tournament titles and four more in men’s doubles. Rublev has never made it past the quarterfinals in any Grand Slam.
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.
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.