Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina said she would not play her round-of-32 match against Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in the Monterrey Open unless tennis’ governing bodies followed the recommendations made by the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC on Friday had said 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 urged sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from competing in events, but 27-year-old 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,” Svitolina said on Monday.

“Accordingly, I want to announce that I will not play tomorrow (Tuesday) in Monterrey, nor any other match against Russian or Belarusian tennis players until our organisations 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. “We demand that WTA immediately condemn Russian government, pull all tournaments out of Russia and approach ITF to do the same. Stop the war. Stop Russian aggression. Bring peace to our homes. Be human.”