Elina Svitolina is continuing to work hard to raise awareness about what is happening in Ukraine but admitted she has given up trying to convince the ATP and WTA to change its stances.
Ukrainian players have been understandably mentally impacted since Russia illegally invaded their country in February this year. The war between the countries that has waged since shows no signs of stopping.
Wimbledon's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from this year's tournament was a controversial consequence for tennis arising from the Russian government's actions. The Belarusian government supports Russia.
That led to the ATP and WTA suspending ranking points at SW19. Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina received no points for their efforts in London despite winning the men's and women's singles.
Another example was a woman being removed from the crowd at the Cincinnati Open after she wore a Ukrainian flag during a match between two Russian players, showing how desperate the event was to avoid any political debates.
An unfortunate consequence of the war continuing to drag on is some naturally lose interest in Ukraine's struggle to defend its territory. Svitolina spoke to Reuters about her efforts to inform people about the continued reality in her home country.
"We're here to do everything to tell people, to introduce them (to) what is really happening in Ukraine, because a lot of people come to me and ask, 'Is there still a war?' And this is really painful to hear."
"They are also struggling without the electricity right now for a couple of days. And it's been a quite, quite challenging nine months for them and it's not getting better."
"In tennis there's been nothing done towards these athletes representing these countries. In the end, we stopped trying because it was just impossible to convince them to change their minds."
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