2021 ATP Cup champions Russia severely depleted for title defence

Three of the four team members that triumphed for Russia at the 2021 ATP Cup have now withdrawn ahead of the 2022 event.

Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev won every singles tie at the 2021 ATP Cup to lead their team to victory at the second ever event.

Now, the defending champions have taken a huge blow to their title defence as the ATP Cup confirmed Rublev will not play the 2022 event.

The withdrawal comes after the world number five revealed that he tested positive for Covid on 27th December.

In addition, both world number 18 Aslan Karatsev and world number 172 Evgeny Donskoy are out. Both were part of the Russia team at the 2021 ATP Cup.

Only world number two and US Open champion Medvedev remains from that roster.

“Russia’s Andrey Rublev, Aslan Karatsev and Evgeny Donskoy have pulled out, and Evgeny Karlovskiy will join the team,” the statement read.

The updated Russian roster includes Medvedev, world number 269 Evgeny Karlovskiy and world number 167 Roma Safiullin.

Besides Medvedev, Rublev and Karatsev, Karen Khachanov is the only other Russian ranked within the ATP top 100.

However, the world number 29 does not appear to be on the team list for Russia.

The event gets underway on 1st January, with the final to be played on 9th.

The competition is comprised of 16 teams in four groups of four, with all matches taking place in Sydney.

Each group will play a round robin format before the winning nation from each group progresses to the semi-finals.

Serbia won the inaugural event in 2020, while, as mentioned, Russia won in 2021.