WASHINGTON, March 10. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev reached the fourth round of the 2026 Indian Wells Open on Tuesday after defeating Sebastain Baez from Argentina.
In a match that lasted one hour and 18 minutes, the 11th-seeded Medvedev, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, outplayed his unseeded Argentinian opponent in straight sets 6-4; 6-0.
Next up, Medvedev will vie for a quarterfinals berth against unseeded Alex Michelsen from the United States.
Medvedev, 30, 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 now a 23-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 Indian Wells tournament is an ATP 1,000 class event played on outdoor hard courts at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California, the United States, between March 4 and 15. It offers almost $9.4 million in prize money. Britain’s Jack Draper is the 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 decided to bar 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 taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, the Women Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed tennis players from Russia and Belarus to continue participating in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.