ROME, May 13. /TASS/. Russia’s Karen Khachanov fell on Wednesday in the quarterfinals round of the 2026 ATP Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome to Casper Ruud from Norway.
In a match that lasted one hour and 40 minutes and was briefly disrupted by the rain, the 13th-seeded Khachanov, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, lost to his 23rd-seeded Norwegian opponent 1-6; 6-1; 2-6.
“I was happy with the win,” the official ATP website quoted Ruud as saying in his on-court interview after the match against Khachanov. “A little down period in the second after the rain, but I am proud of the first and third sets.”
“The quality I played with in the first and third sets is some of the best I have felt on court recently,” he continued.
“I am not quite sure what happened in the second set but I let myself go and tried to focus on the third set and luckily that worked,” the Norwegian player added.
Ruud will play in the semifinals against the winner of another quarterfinals duel between Rafael Jodar of Spain (32nd-seed) and Italy’s Luciano Darderi (18th-seed). If the 27-year-old Norwegian tennis star advances, it will be his first final at the tournament in Rome.
Ruud is currently 25th in the ATP Rankings List and he has 12 ATP titles under his belt. Playing at the Grand Slam series tournaments he reached the finals three times — at the French Open in 2022 and 2023 and at the US Open in 2022.
A seven-time ATP champion, Khachanov, 29, is currently the 15th-ranked player in the world. His best performance in the Grand Slam series was when he reached the semifinal rounds at the 2022 US Open and the 2023 Australian Open.
The Russian player also took home the silver medal in men’s singles at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. He also won the 2021 Davis Cup as part of the Russian national team.
The 2026 Italian Open tennis tournament is an ATP 1000 event. Played on outdoor clay courts, the 83rd edition of the tourney takes place at Rome’s Foro Italico sports complex on May 5-17 and offers some $9.6 million in prize money. The tournament’s reigning champion is Carlos Alcaraz from Spain, who earlier withdrew from the current tournament citing an injury.
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.