Even though Russia has been banned from defending their Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles, the players can still compete at the Grand Slams and in regular tour events. The tennis authorities have also suspended Moscow's combined WTA-ATP event scheduled for October.
The decision by the tennis authorities comes on the back of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Belarus, a key staging area for the invasion, which Russia says is a "special operation", has also been banned from the international team competitions.
"The international governing bodies of tennis stand united in our condemnation of Russia's actions," the ATP, WTA, International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slams said in a joint statement.
The tennis authorities confirmed that the Russian and Belarusian players can play on the elite ATP and WTA Tours but not under the name or flag of their countries, the governing bodies said.
Men's world number 1 Daniil Medvedev and number 6 Andrey Rublev helped Russia beat Croatia in the 2021 Davis Cup final in Madrid in December, a month after the Russian women’s team had won the Billie Jean King Cup in Prague.
At the moment, it is not clear if Russia or their players can be part of the lucrative team-based ATP Cup in Australia. The Russians made the semis in 2022 and won the tournament the year before that.
The ITF have also said that they had suspended the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation and withdrawn their entries from all ITF team competition until further notice.
The decision followed the ITF's cancellation of all its tournaments in Russia and Belarus.
(With Reuters inputs)
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