'I was on a mission for my country': Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina defeats Russia's Anastasia Potapova while wearing her national colours of yellow and blue at Monterrey Open

• Elina Svitolina said she was 'on a mission for her country' at the first round match in Mexico on Tuesday
• The No 1 seed beat Russia's Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 6-1 in Monterrey in the emotional match
• Ukrainian tennis star Svitolina wore her country's colours of blue and yellow for the encounter
• Potapova played under a neutral flag and Svitolina said invasion is not their fault 
• Click here for MailOnline's liveblog with the latest updates on the Ukraine crisis 

Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina said she was 'on a mission for my country' after thrashing Russia's Anastasis Potapova while wearing the yellow and blue colours of her homeland at the Monterrey Open.

The top-seeded talent managed to find the strength to play in the opening round match despite the horrors back home, after previously insisting she would not play against any Russian or Belarusian opponents until they were banned.

But the International Tennis Federation and the men's and women's tennis tours ruled on Tuesday that players from the invading nations would be allowed to play but not under their national flags.

Svitolina made her feelings known as she wore a yellow top and visor and blue shorts for the grudge match and went on to resoundingly beat her opponent 6-2, 6-1, to the delight of the Mexico crowd.

The world number 15, who said she would donate her match fee to the Ukrainian army, gave an emotional salute to the fans and repeatedly thumped her chest on the court in the charged encounter. 

After the victory, the 27-year-old said: 'Today it was a very special match for me. I'm in a very sad mood, but I'm happy that I'm playing tennis here.

'I was focused. I was on a mission for my country. From the beginning, it was important to be ready for anything that comes my way.'

Svitolina is a two-time Grand Slam semifinalist with 16 career tour-level singles titles who has been ranked as high as No. 3 and is currently No. 15.

The 27-year-old revealed that she decided she could make more of an impact by playing tennis than boycotting the event. 

'All the prize money that I'm going to earn is going to be for the Ukrainian army,' said Svitolina, who won this tournament in 2020. The Monterrey Open has $31,000 in prize money for the champion.

Svitolina, who broke serve in the first and third games on the way to a lopsided win over Potapova in 64 minutes, will play against Viktoriya Tomova in the second round.

In her social media post Monday, Svitolina said her objective in demanding tennis follow the International Olympic Committee's lead and insist that players from Russia and Belarus are only identified as 'neutral athletes' was not against individual competitors.

'I do not blame any of the Russian athletes,' Svitolina wrote. 'They are not responsible for the invasion of our motherland.' 

Back in her homeland, fierce fighting is underway in Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv this morning after Russian paratroopers dropped in and attacked a military hospital before airstrikes targeted police, state agencies and the security service. 

Part of Karazin National University was on fire early Wednesday with the building partially collapsed after a missile - seemingly intended for the neighbouring police headquarters or interior ministry building - struck the college's department of sociology instead.

At least 21 people have been killed an 112 wounded in shelling on Kharkiv in the last 24 hours, governor Oleg Synegubov said, as an interior ministry official added: 'There are practically no areas left in Kharkiv where an artillery shell has not yet hit.'

It came as the Russian army renewed its assault on Ukraine after punishing losses in the early days. Putin's forces captured Kherson, in the south, overnight though the mayor remained defiant - posting on Facebook: 'We are still Ukraine. Still firm.' Mariupol, also in the south, came under renewed shelling.

In Zhytomyr, a city to the west of Kyiv, airstrikes hit the headquarters of the 95th Ukrainian armed forces brigade while also damaging a hospital, leaving two people dead. The city of Bila Tserkva, some 50 miles south of Kyiv, was also hit overnight. 

Ukraine's armed forces said Wednesday morning that Russia is 'trying to advance in all directions' but are 'being resisted everywhere and suffering losses'. It estimates that 5,840 Russian troops have been killed so far - though that figure cannot be verified.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia, which has launched an invasion of his country, of seeking to 'erase' Ukrainians, their country and their history.

In a video address, the Ukrainian leader said a missile strike on a target at the site of a Holocaust massacre shows that 'for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign.

'They know nothing about our capital. About our history. But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all,' he said.