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Svitolina wants practical help for Ukraine not tennis rows over handshake

Elina Svitolina urged tennis to focus on the suffering in Ukraine rather than issues the war is causing within the sport after reaching the second round of the French Open.

One of Ukraine's highest-profile sports stars, Svitolina is playing her first grand slam since the Australian Open last year after giving birth to baby Skai in October.

She has been away from the locker room tensions caused by the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian players to continue competing and has been a prominent figure in campaigning for help for her country.

A day after Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk was booed by the Roland Garros crowd for refusing to shake hands with Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, Svitolina called for attention to stay on the bigger picture.

She said of her return to the sport: "What I found, I don’t know a nicer way to say, but a lot of rubbish is happening around the situation where we have to focus on the main point of what is going on.

"A lot of people, Ukrainian people, need help and need support. We are focusing on so many things like empty words, empty things that are not helping the situation, not helping anything.

"I want to invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. To help kids, to help women who lost their husbands, because they are at the war and they are fighting for Ukraine. The kids, they’re losing their parents, they’re losing parts of their body.

"There is so many things that we can do and help in different ways. You can donate a couple of dollars, it might help and save lives. Or donate your time. We are missing the main point of all of that and talking, talking, talking about nothing."

Full results

Svitolina came into the tournament on the back of her first title as a mother in Strasbourg and impressed in a 6-2

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