MOSCOW (Reuters) – Men’s world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev and Veronika Kudermetova, the highest-ranked Russian woman, will lead their tennis teams at the Tokyo Olympics, a Russian sports official said on Tuesday.
Russian athletes in Tokyo will represent the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) because their country was stripped of its flag and anthem at the Games for doping offences
Shamil Tarpischev, president of the Russian Tennis Federation, told TASS news agency the men’s team would also include Andrei Rublev, currently 7th in ATP rankings, Karen Khachanov, ranked 25th, and Aslan Karatsev, the surprise semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open.
Kudermetova, ranked 30th, will be joined in the women’s team by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Daria Kasatkina.
Tarpischev added that Elena Vesnina would play doubles either with Kudermetova or Vera Zvonareva.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
