Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina said she was ‘on a mission for my country’ after thrashing Russia’s Anastasis Potapova while wearing the yellow and blue colours of her homeland at the Monterrey Open.
The top-seeded talent managed to find the strength to play in the opening round match despite the horrors back home, after previously insisting she would not play against any Russian or Belarusian opponents until they were banned.
But the International Tennis Federation and the men’s and women’s tennis tours ruled on Tuesday that players from the invading nations would be allowed to play but not under their national flags.
Svitolina made her feelings known as she wore a yellow top and visor and blue shorts for the grudge match and went on to resoundingly beat her opponent 6-2, 6-1, to the delight of the Mexico crowd.
The world number 15, who said she would donate her match fee to the Ukrainian army, gave an emotional salute to the fans and repeatedly thumped her chest on the court in the charged encounter.
Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina salutes the crowd after defeating Russia’s Anastasia Potapova during the first round of the Monterrey Open
Svitolina made her feelings known as she wore a yellow top and visor and blue shorts for the grudge match held during Russia’s invasion of her homeland
The top-seeded talent managed to find the strength to play in the opening round match despite the horrors back home
The sports star had previously insisted she would not play against any Russian or Belarusian opponents until they were banned
Svitolina said she had no issue with individual athletes from Belarus and Russia but wanted tennis’ governing bodies to send a message
The world number 15, who said she would donate her match fee to the Ukrainian army, gave an emotional salute to the fans
Television graphics had a blank space next to where Potapova’s flag and country would normally have been
After the victory, the 27-year-old said: ‘Today it was a very special match for me. I’m in a very sad mood, but I’m happy that I’m playing tennis here.
‘I was focused. I was on a mission for my country. From the beginning, it was important to be ready for anything that comes my way.’
Svitolina is a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist with 16 career tour-level singles titles who has been ranked as high as No. 3 and is currently No. 15.
The 27-year-old revealed that she decided she could make more of an impact by playing tennis than boycotting the event.
‘All the prize money that I’m going to earn is going to be for the Ukrainian army,’ said Svitolina, who won this tournament in 2020. The Monterrey Open has $31,000 in prize money for the champion.
Svitolina, who broke serve in the first and third games on the way to a lopsided win over Potapova in 64 minutes, will play against Viktoriya Tomova in the second round.
Elina Svitolina earned a straight sets win over Anastasia Potapova in the first round in Mexico
The No 1 seed wore blue and yellow – the colours of her nation – for her game on Tuesday night
Dressed in Ukraine’s blue and gold colours, a fired-up Elina Svitolina thrashed Russian Anastasia Potapova in Mexico on Tuesday
Svitolina, who broke serve in the first and third games on the way to a lopsided win over Potapova in 64 minutes, will play against Viktoriya Tomova in the second round
The players exchanged a few words at the net after the match before Svitolina showed her appreciation for the support from the crowd
Svitolina took on Russia’s Anastasia Potapova (above) who played under a neutral flag
The 27-year-old said she was ‘on a mission for my country’ during her match on Tuesday night
Back in her homeland, fierce fighting is underway in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv this morning
In her social media post Monday, Svitolina said her objective in demanding tennis follow the International Olympic Committee’s lead and insist that players from Russia and Belarus are only identified as ‘neutral athletes’ was not against individual competitors.
‘I do not blame any of the Russian athletes,’ Svitolina wrote. ‘They are not responsible for the invasion of our motherland.’
Back in her homeland, fierce fighting is underway in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv this morning after Russian paratroopers dropped in and attacked a military hospital before airstrikes targeted police, state agencies and the security service.
Part of Karazin National University was on fire early Wednesday with the building partially collapsed after a missile – seemingly intended for the neighbouring police headquarters or interior ministry building – struck the college’s department of sociology instead.
At least 21 people have been killed an 112 wounded in shelling on Kharkiv in the last 24 hours, governor Oleg Synegubov said, as an interior ministry official added: ‘There are practically no areas left in Kharkiv where an artillery shell has not yet hit.’
Part of the Karazin National University campus in the city of Kharkiv is destroyed after being struck by a Russian missile which was seemingly intended for a nearby police or interior ministry building
Firefighters battle to put out a blaze in Kharkiv as the city came under renewed airstrikes today, with an official saying there is almost no area of the city left that has not been hit
It came as the Russian army renewed its assault on Ukraine after punishing losses in the early days. Putin’s forces captured Kherson, in the south, overnight though the mayor remained defiant – posting on Facebook: ‘We are still Ukraine. Still firm.’ Mariupol, also in the south, came under renewed shelling.
In Zhytomyr, a city to the west of Kyiv, airstrikes hit the headquarters of the 95th Ukrainian armed forces brigade while also damaging a hospital, leaving two people dead. The city of Bila Tserkva, some 50 miles south of Kyiv, was also hit overnight.
Ukraine’s armed forces said Wednesday morning that Russia is ‘trying to advance in all directions’ but are ‘being resisted everywhere and suffering losses’. It estimates that 5,840 Russian troops have been killed so far – though that figure cannot be verified.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia, which has launched an invasion of his country, of seeking to ‘erase’ Ukrainians, their country and their history.
In a video address, the Ukrainian leader said a missile strike on a target at the site of a Holocaust massacre shows that ‘for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign.
‘They know nothing about our capital. About our history. But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all,’ he said.
Ukraine’s military said Russia today renewed its assault ‘on all fronts’, with paratroopers landing in Kharkiv, tanks and trucks rolling into the centre of Kherson, and strikes in Mariupol and Zhytomyr
The remains of a destroyed Russian military convoy are seen on a street in Bucha, to the south of Kyiv, on Wednesday morning
Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry a body of a victim out of the damaged City Hall building following shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine
