Russia’s Medvedev defeats Australia’s De Minaur at 2024 ATP Finals in Italy

ROME, November 12. /TASS/. Russia’s top racquet Daniil Medvedev bounced back from his first round defeat at the 2024 ATP Finals Tournament, taking down Australia’s Alex de Minaur in straight sets 6-2; 6-4 on Tuesday.
The Russian, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, lost his first match at the ATP’s final annual event earlier in the month to Taylor Fritz of the United States (4-6; 3-6).
“I went into this match blocking the noise, even from myself,” the official ATP website quoted Medvedev as saying after his match against the Australian. “I really didn’t care what was happening on the court, I just tried to play, and it was a good feeling. Sometimes it’s good to block it [the noise], and I did that well today.”
“After the last match [against Fritz], I was too tired mentally to fight the way I usually do. [So,] I went into the match [today] just trying to hit some shots, even thinking about next year,” he went on. “What is going to work well today and what’s not. It worked well, so I’m okay with it.”
Medvedev, who made the cut for the ATP Finals for a sixth time in a row, said speaking about his encounter with the 25-year-old Australian: “I really didn’t care what was happening on the court, I just tried to play, and it was a good feeling. Sometimes it’s good to block it [the noise], and I did that well today.”
Medvedev, 28, is currently fourth in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Rankings. In 2022, the top Russian racquet spent sixteen weeks as the number one player in the world. He is the 2021 US Open Champion and has 20 ATP tournament titles under his belt. He won five of these 20 titles in 2023. Also, in 2021, he won the Davis Cup as well as the ATP Cup playing for the Russian national team.
The 2024 ATP Finals is a men’s tennis tournament held on indoor hard courts at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, Italy, from November 10 to 17, 2024. Every year, the showcase pits the world’s top eight male players against each other, according to the ATP Rankings.
This year’s ATP Finals’ Round Robin competition is made up of Group A: Jannik Sinner (Italy); Daniil Medvedev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments), Taylor Fritz (the United States) and Alex de Minaur (Australia); while Group B lists Alexander Zverev (Germany), Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), Casper Ruud (Norway) and Andrey Rublev (Russian athlete playing under a neutral status at ATP tournaments).
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, most 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 and also canceled 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 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.
However, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) allowed players from Russia and Belarus to continue competing in WTA and ATP tournaments, but only under a neutral status.