Tennis star Daniil Medvedev has expressed his hopes that one day he will be able to proudly represent the Russian flag again, after the International Tennis Federation banned Russian and Belarusian flags amidst their war on Ukraine.
Medvedev, 26, is currently top of the world rankings after his superb performances in recent tournaments.
He made the final of the Australian Open in 2021 before winning the US Open back in September.
The Russian avenged his loss to Novak Djokovic in Melbourne by beating the Serbian in straight sets at the Billie Jean King Center to stamp his authority at the top of tennis’ elite.
But for the moment, Medvedev is having to compete under a blank flag due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The ITF took the decision to make Russian and Belarusian athletes compete under a neutral banner as a punishment to the proud sporting country of Russia in particular as they continue to wage war on Ukraine.
And Medvedev has revealed he hopes relations can be improved soon so that he can fly the Russian flag once more.
“Our task is to develop tennis in the countries where each of us comes from and all over the world,” he said.
“For that, you have to play tennis every week at every tournament.
“At the moment, the only way to continue is to play without a flag, and I will follow this rule.
He reached the quarter-finals last time out, but was ultimately knocked out by Stefanos Tsitsipas in a straight-sets loss.
The Moscow-born talent is the first man outside of the ‘Big Four’ of Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic to be the world No 1 since Andy Roddick in February 2004.
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