Russians and Medvedev: how was the tennis superstar's return to Russia

The first performance of Russian tennis superstar Daniil Medvedev in his native country for a long time turned out to be more than successful for him. At the North Palmyra Trophies exhibition tournament in St. Petersburg, the winner of the US Open 2021 won both matches and brought victory to his team. And the audience saw a whole scattering of stars from Russia, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands in the person of Tallon Grixpor, who came to us despite the strange statements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his state.

Medvedev

The most decorated of the current domestic tennis players has not played in Russia since 2020. Then he also played on the court in St. Petersburg — at the St. Petersburg Open tournament. This competition, like the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, was an official event on the calendar of the Association of Professional Tennis Players (ATP) and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). After February 2022, both tournaments were removed from the calendar, prohibiting the holding of such international events in our country.

As an alternative, the Trophies of Northern Palmyra exhibition tournament was created, which has been held in St. Petersburg for the fourth year at the end of the international season. Many of our stars took part in it, but Medvedev reached the competition only in 2025.

The tournament format includes 10 matches: eight in singles and two in doubles. The participants are divided into two teams — "Sphinxes" and "Lions". They compete over two days off. The winner here is determined in an unusual way — by the total number of games won during these 10 matches.

At the same time, each of the three sets of the match takes place within 20 minutes, that is, the time is limited, unlike the traditional format, when to win a set you need to win at least six games and be ahead of your opponent by at least two games won.

Medvedev ended up playing for the Sphinxes. Russians Veronika Kudermetova and Karen Khachanov, as well as a representative of Kazakhstan, Yulia Putintseva, were in the same team with him. This time, Tallon Grixpor from the Netherlands, Russians Diana Schneider, Anastasia Potapova and Alexander Bublik, who plays for Kazakhstan, became the "lions".

As a result, the Sphinxes won with a score of 105:100. And Medvedev personally beat Grixpore and Bublik. The tournament itself takes place in the Arena multifunctional cultural and entertainment complex, which is located on Krestovsky Island next to the Gazprom Arena football stadium.

The Arena can accommodate more than 7,000 spectators, and on this day the complex was filled almost to capacity. People who came to the competition could not only watch the matches from the stands — many, for example, devoted half of the time spent here to standing in long queues in the lobby as part of the participants' autograph sessions. There was no shortage of people who wanted to take photos or get a painting from Medvedev, Khachanov, Kudermetova and other star participants.

"I am very glad that I was able to visit St. Petersburg and take part in such a competition not for the first time," Karen Khachanov told Izvestia. — It is not often possible to come to your native country due to the peculiarities of the tour calendar, where competitions are held all over the world almost all year round. But I try to take every opportunity to come home, and it's a pleasure to play in front of my own compatriots.

Rackets at the start: the main faces of the elite tennis tournament in St. Petersburg

The team of Medvedev and Kudermetova against Bublik and Schneider

Grixpor

The appearance at the tournament of a representative of the Netherlands, a very unfriendly country in Western Europe, whose authorities have been harshly opposing Russia on both the political and sports fields since 2022, was quite unexpected. But Tallon Grixpor still came to St. Petersburg. This was largely influenced by his relationship with Anastasia Potapova, with whom they have been dating since at least the beginning of this year, when they were first seen together in February during a tournament in Dubai.

Interestingly, the visit to the Northern Capital of last year's Davis Cup finalist and the quarter-finalist of last year's Wimbledon was not spared by the Dutch authorities.

"Participation in tournaments in Russia is not prohibited, but I appeal to him not to do so if possible and to take into account the moral aspects," Dutch Foreign Minister David van Wil said on Thursday during a debate in parliament.

According to NU, Grixpor responded to the statement on social media with the phrase: "Don't they have anything else to do?" However, Tallon later deleted the message. At the same time, in an interview with the website Championat.com The 25th racket of the world said that he was going to come to St. Petersburg a year ago, but was unable to do so due to an injury sustained in the Davis Cup final. He also expressed his admiration for St. Petersburg, saying that it looks like Amsterdam. At the tournament itself, the 29-year—old tennis player played three times - he won the doubles with Bublik Medvedev and Khachanov, but lost the singles matches to Daniil and Karen.