Svitolina may refuse to play Russian

Ukrainian Elina Svitolina has said she will not play her round of 32 match against Anastasia Potapova in the Monterrey Open unless the Russian has to play as a neutral, as recommended by the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC's executive said on Friday that Russian and Belarusian national flags should not be displayed at international sports events following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, the IOC's executive board went further and recommended sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from competing in events, but Svitolina made her feelings known before the latest release.

"We Ukrainian players requested to ATP, WTA and ITF to follow the recommendations of the IOC to accept Russian or Belarusian nationals only as neutral athletes, without displaying any national symbols, colours, flags or anthems," said Svitolina, the tournament's top seed and world No.15.

"Accordingly, I want to announce that I will not play tomorrow in Monterrey, nor any other match against Russian or Belarusian tennis players until our organizations take this necessary decision."

In a separate but similar statement earlier on Monday, Ukrainian women's tennis players including Marta Kostyuk and Lesia Tsurenko called on the WTA to pull all tournaments from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

"We Ukrainian tennis players would like to express our great surprise and dissatisfaction with the lack of any response with the situation with our motherland," the statement said.

"It is especially strange that in prior cases of social injustice and sexual harassment the response of WTA was prompt, appropriate and bold.

"We demand that WTA immediately condemn Russian government, pull all tournaments out of Russia