Playing her first tournament since giving birth to daughter Skai, Elina Svitolina fought hard but eventually fell to Yulia Putintseva 6-7(3) 6-2 6-4 in the first round of the Credit One Charleston Open.
Even though it was her first match in 13 months, Svitolina successfully fought for over an hour in the first set alone. The world No.47 Putintseva twice promptly recovered from a break down and Svitolina even fought off a set point at 5-4 down before having the final say in a tiebreak.
Kazakhstan’s Putintseva opened the second set with a break at love and maintained the lead even though Svitolina had three opportunities to level to 2-2.