MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Daniil Medvedev has remained for 11th week in a row in the top of the ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) Rankings list, which was published earlier on Monday.
Spain’s 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, who won this season four ATP tournaments, climbed one place up and is now 4th in the newly-published Rankings list. Titled Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic also climbed one spot up and is now in 6th place.
The Top-10 of the ATP Ranking List is as follows: 1st Daniil Medvedev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments), 2nd Alexander Zverev (Germany), 3rd Rafael Nadal (Spain), 4th Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), 5th Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece), 6th Novak Djokovic (Serbia), 7th Casper Ruud (Norway), 8th Andrey Rublev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments), 9th Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada), 10th Jannik Sinner (Italy).
Russia’s Medvedev, 26, is the winner of 13 ATP tournaments. The Russian player is also the winner of the 2021 US Open and the 2020 ATP Finals. Between February 28 and March 21, 2022, Medvedev also topped the ATP Rankings.
Medvedev hit the courts almost a month ago (at the Mallorca Championships) and this week he is entering to play at the 2022 Los Cabos Open tournament, which is also known as the Abierto de Tenis Mifel and runs in Mexico’s Los Cabos between August 1 and 6.
Being the World’s No.1 in the ATP Rankings, Medvedev will begin the tournament in Los Cabos starting with Round 2 and his opponent will be either the winner of the qualifiers or Mexico’s wild card Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez.
Asked in an interview with the ATP press office about how hard it would be to return to the courts after a one-month break, Medvedev said: "Tough to say."
"It’s always different, but for sure winning matches is the most important," the official ATP website quoted Medvedev as saying. "Every opponent can be tough so the more matches you win, the more confidence you gain, the more you start feeling your game better, what you have to do better, so that’s what I’m going to try to do here in Los Cabos."
The Russian tennis star was also asked to comment on the developments in the battle for the top spot in the ATP Rankings, which he said is trying to follow "a little bit."
"For sure I’m watching [the battle for No. 1] a little bit," he said. "Depends also the moment because I know at the end of the year, unless I try to win every tournament that is left, it’s probably going to be Rafa [Rafael Nadal] for [year-end No. 1]. But at the same time, I can keep it for quite a long time I feel like if I play good here in the [North American hard-court swing]."
"I know that the most important is to try to win tournaments, try to win those points," Medvedev said. "Then you can keep [World No. 1]," he added.
On February 28, 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, 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 to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations and also cancelled all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in these countries.
On March 14, the ITF also confirmed its ban in regard to the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from taking part in the 2022 Davis Cup and 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
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 under a neutral status.