SYDNEY, January 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev earned a hard-fought victory in the opening round of this year’s first Grand Slam series tournament, the 2026 Australian Open on Monday, defeating Jesper de Jong from the Netherlands.

The 11th-seeded Medvedev, who is playing under neutral status at the tournament, took down the unseeded de Jong 7-5; 6-2; 7-6 (7-2).

"Today was not easy. First match, different tournament, a Grand Slam," the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) official website quoted Medvedev as saying after the match.

"Last year, I lost almost [each major] in the first round, except here actually, so I’m happy to win in straight sets, even if some of them were up and down," he continued.

"The conditions felt slow, so we were both breaking each other’s serve a lot. The most important [thing] is to win and hopefully I can play better next round," he added.

In the next round, the Russian will play another unseeded player, Frenchman Quentin Halys, who earlier won his own opening round match against Chilean Alejandro Tabilo 6-2; 6-2 7-6 (7-2).

Medvedev, 29, spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one player in 2022. Currently, he’s the 12th-ranked player in the world. He previously won the 2021 US Open and is a 22-time ATP champion. He won five of those 22 titles in 2023. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.

The 2026 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park between January 18 and February 1 and has a purse of some $75 million in prize money up for grabs. The season’s first Grand Slam, this year marks the 114th edition of the tournament. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and American Madison Keys are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.

Russian and Belarusian 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.