"The Russian army is still killing a lot of innocent people": Svitolina hits out on potential reversal of Wimbledon Russian and Belarusian ban, says it's 'not fair play'

Reports from the UK suggest that Wimbledon is likely to revert the ban on Russian and Belarussian players this year however it's not yet official and Svitolina hopes it never becomes official either.

The Ukranian player was one of only several players to praise the ban feeling it was necessary due to what was happening back in her country. She wasn't as harsh as some of her colleagues like Marta Kostyuk but her line was not one shared among many tennis professionals. She recently gave an interview where she stated that she hopes the ban remains in place because it's the right decision:

"It’s not supposed to be like this in my opinion, what Wimbledon did last year (banning players from Russia and Belarus) was the right decision. If that has been changed this year it’s very sad because the war is still terrible, the Russian army is still killing a lot of innocent people. It is not fair play."

She added:

"I think there is only one place where I used to train still working. The place where I trained the most had its roof blown off by a missile. Our sport has been set back at least ten years. Our athletes can’t train properly, and there are 150 athletes who have been killed fighting on the frontline. It’s obvious that it is not fair conditions."

And more:

"The war has brought the Ukrainiain players closer. And we are all agreed that this is not fair for us that they (those from Russia and Belarus) just carry on. Other sports, Olympic sports, are not allowing Russian athletes to compete, it’s pretty much only tennis that is allowing them in and I don’t know why it is like this."