Russia’s Medvedev stays ATP No.1

PARIS – Daniil Medvedev stayed on top of the ATP rankings, but the country column next to his name contained a white rectangle, after the ATP responded to the military operation in Ukraine, by deciding last week to allow Russian and Belarusian players to continue to compete, but not under their national flags.

Andrey Rublev, who dropped a place to seventh, Aslan Karatsev in 22 and Karen Khachanov, who fell one spot to 26, also had their nationality hidden by the ATP.

Belarusian Ilya Ivashka, who rose two spots to 41, was also flagless.

There no Ukrainians in the men’s top 100.

One player who jumped without playing was Dominic Thiem the former number three, out with a wrist injury since June, rose one spot to 50 just as he postponed his return to the ATP tour circuit.

The 28-year-old Austrian said today he had decided to skip Indian Wells, which starts on Thursday and the Miami Open from March 23 to April 3 and has pushed back his return until the start of the clay court season in April.

“I had really good practice weeks. The wrist is perfectly fine, the hand is getting better and better, but still I decided to pull out of Indian Wells and of Miami to start on the clay courts,” Thiem said on Instagram according to AFP.

He won the Indian Wells tournament in 2019 and reached number three in the world rankings between March 2020 and February 2021, winning his one major, the US Open in 2020. That was his last title.

Meanwhile, Maria Sakkari was the only climber in the top 20 of the WTA rankings released recently, climbing one place to No. 6 and exchanging places with Spaniard Paula Badosa. No. 1 Ashleigh Barty retained a huge lead over Czech Barbora Krejcikova

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka stays third but is one of five women in the top 30 who have become stateless after the WTA ruled players from her country and Russia cannot compete under their national flags due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Belarus is an ally of Russia and hosted troops used in the invasion. The top-ranked Ukrainian, Elina Svitolina dropped three places to 18th but Dayana Yastremska jumped 37 places to 103 following her emotional run to Sunday’s final in the Lyon.