Daniil Medvedev stays ATP No 1 but no longer flies a flag

Paris, France:  While the ATP rankings barely moved on Monday following a weekend when the Davis Cup replaced tournaments, there was one visible change, as the Russian flag vanished from the list.

Daniil Medvedev stayed on top, but the country column next to his name contained a white rectangle, after the ATP responded to the invasion of 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 on Monday 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. 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. Rankings 1. Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 8615 pts 2. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 8465 3. Alexander Zverev (GER) 7515 4. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6515 5. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 6325 6. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) 4928 (+1) 7. Andrey Rublev (RUS) 4590 (-1) 8. Casper Ruud (NOR) 3915 9. Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) 3883 10. Jannik Sinner (ITA) 3495 (+1) 11. Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 3468 (-1) 12. Cameron Norrie (GBR) 3305 13. Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 3020 14. Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 2660 15. Roberto Bautista (ESP) 2480 16. Pablo Carreno (ESP) 2220 17. Reilly Opelka (USA) 2156 18. Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) 2121 19. Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 2056 20. Taylor Fritz (USA) 2010 Selected 50. Dominic Thiem (AUT) (+1) 88. Andy Murray (GBR) (-4)