Elina Svitolina loses first match back from pregnancy to Putintseva

Elina Svitolina made her return to tennis at the Charleston Open against Yulia Putintseva and she lost the match in three sets 7-6(3) 2-6 4-6.

It was a really competitive match as Svitolina played really well considering the circumstances but ultimately in the end she ran out of gas a little bit. The first set was a really good one that lasted well over an hour and it was won by Svitolina 7-3 in the tiebreak. She was up a break twice in that set but both times Putintseva battled back.

The second set didn't as well for the Ukranian as Putintseva played a lot better and Svitolina wasn't quite as sharp as in the first set. She was quite aggressive in the match from the start and while it worked in the first, it didn't quite work in the second set. The final one was another solid one that barely went the way of the Kazakh player.

Svitolina lost her serve early but broke back immediately after that. She lost her serve once more a bit later but again broke back with the 3rd time being the one she wasn't able to pull back. She had a chance though battling to a break point but Putintseva held firm for the win. Almost three hours.