Daily Times

PARIS: 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.