THE HAGUE, February 9. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev lost in the opening round of the 2026 ATP Rotterdam tournament in the Netherlands on Monday after falling to Hugo Umbert of France.
In a match that lasted two hours and 22 minutes, the 4th-seeded Russian, who played under a neutral status at the tourney, lost to unseeded Umbert 6-7 (4-7); 6-3; 3-6.
"This one is really great," the ATP official website quoted Humbert as saying after his match against Medvedev. "My first win here, against Daniil…"
"It’s a big victory and I’m super happy. I lost the second set, but I knew I was playing well. It was a great match from the beginning to the end. The last set was really solid," the French player continued.
"I know that, against Daniil you have to play a lot of rallies. I was ready to fight for each point and I did it."
Medvedev, 29, spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one player in 2022. Currently, he’s the 11th-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.
Humbert is chasing his eighth ATP Tour title this week and his fifth on indoor hard courts. The 27-year-old French player is currently 36th in the ATP Rankings. He is a multiple-time quarterfinalist at Grand Slams.
The 2025 Rotterdam Open tennis tournament is an ATP 500 competition on the organization’s calendar and it is played between February 3 and 9 on indoor hard courts. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz is the reigning champ of this tournament.
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.