New world number one Daniil Medvedev’s spot atop the rankings could be under threat amid calls for Russia and Belarus to be expelled from the International Tennis Federation.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, the Ukrainian Tennis Federation are pressuring the ITF to ban Russia from all individual and team events. If the governing body decided to go through with such a drastic move, it would see players like Medvedev banned from competing.
Medvedev became the first non-Big Four player to hold top spot in the ATP rankings since February 1, 2004 - over 18 years ago. The Russian officially confirmed his new spot when the rankings were updated on Monday, with Medvedev capping a tremendously successful 12 months, including his maiden Grand Slam title when he won the US Open title.
The 26-year-old is the first Russian to be ranked world number one since Marat Safin in 2000, but Medvedev’s achievement has been overshadowed by the harrowing geopolitical news of the last week following Russian president Vladimir Putin ’s decision to invade Ukraine.
There have already been calls for FIFA and UEFA to ban Russian teams from competition, while the Champions League final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris and Formula 1 cancelled the Russian Grand Prix.
The Ukrainian Tennis Federation hopes the ITF will ban Russia and Belarus from the organisation while the conflict is ongoing. In a letter to the body, they also asked Russia to be banned from both team and individual tournaments.
“Russia and Belarus do not have the right not only to hold international competitions on their territory, but also to participate in all ITF team and individual tournaments abroad,” the letter read.
The ITF has already indefinitely suspended each of their sanctioned tournaments in Russia and added Belarus would not host any events in 2022. If they move to ban the country from competitions, it would mean the men’s world number one would not be allowed to compete in ITF-governed tournaments.
“This is a fast-evolving situation; we are in active discussion with the ITF tennis family and the ITF Board to decide and align around our next course of action,” the ITF added.
It will be frustrating for Russian tennis players, as the nations were victorious and could therefore be unable to defend their Davis and Billie Jean Cup titles. The country also won gold and silver medals in the mixed doubles at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with an all-Russian Olympic Committee final as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev defeated compatriots Elina Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev, while Karen Khachanov won the men’s singles silver medal.
Ultimately, the conflict could cost Medvedev his coveted world number one spot in the radical scenario that all Russian players are banned from competing and withdrawn from the rankings. The US Open champion’s ranking would only be in danger if the ATP independently decided to act on Russia and its players from competition.
In a worst case scenario with the ITF, players including Medvedev and Rublev would represent the Russian Tennis Federation in some way rather than the country of Russia itself, with the flag and national anthem stripped from use in professional tennis akin to the Olympics.
It would also apply to the Women’s Tennis Association, which has three Russian players in the world’s top 30 while two Belarusians - Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka - are in the top 20.
