ALMATY, October 22. /TASS/. Russia’s top-ranked tennis player Daniil Medvedev has advanced to the quarterfinals stage at the 2026 Almaty Open tennis tournament after defeating on Thursday Sho Shimabukuro from Japan.
The top-seed Russian, who is playing under a neutral status at the tournament, breezed past his unseeded Japanese opponent in straight sets 6:2, 6:1. He is now set to play in the next round against Terence Atmane from France (also unseeded).
Medvedev, 30, spent sixteen weeks as the world’s number one player in 2022. He is currently ranked 6th in the ATP Rankings. He previously won the 2021 US Open and holds 24 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 Almaty Open is the ATP 250 class tournament played on indoor hardcourts on October 19-25 and it offers $1.075 million in prize money. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev is the tournament’s 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 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.