BERLIN, June 16. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev has started the 2026 ATP Halle Open tennis tournament in Germany with a confident straight-set win over Tomas Martin Etcheverry from Argentina.

In a match that lasted one hour and 28 minutes, the 4th-seeded Medvedev, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, outplayed his unseeded Argentinian opponent Etcheverry 6-3; 6-4 and is now set to face off in the next round against French Terence Atmane.

Medvedev, 30, is currently 8th in the ATP Rankings. He spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one player in 2022. He previously won the 2021 US Open and holds 23 ATP titles. He won five of those 23 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 Halle Open is a men's tennis tournament that is played on outdoor grass courts and its 33rd edition this year is part of the ATP 500 series. Matches are played at the OWL Arena in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between June 15 and 21, 2026. The tournament’s reigning champion is Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. Yevgeny Kafelnikov is the only Russian to win this tournament and he did it thrice (in 1997, 1998, 2002).

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.