Elina Svitolina played a fairly decent match in the first round of the Madrid Open however she was beaten by Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4 7-5.
Svitolina has been attempting a comeback following her pregnancy but it hasn't been that good as she lost the vast majority of the matches she played. This one was a very competitive one and Svitolina tried really hard but in the end, it was the Belarusian who was able to get it done simply because she played better in the crucial moments.
The start of the match was very funky as Svitolina fell behind 0-3 with two drops of serve. She pulled back one of those but largely struggled to apply any kind of pressure on Sasnovich in the rest of the games. She wasn't able to create any more break chances as Sasnovich won the set 6-4. The second set saw Svitolina play a fair amount better.
She took an early lead 3-1 but couldn't hold it for long as Sasnovich was determined not to allow Svitolina to escape with the break. We saw good battling for a few games but neither player created any chances until very late in the set. At 5-5, Sasnovich broke and then finally held for the 7-5 second-set finish.