Top seed Svitolina moves on at Chicago Women's Open after Burel retires

Elina Svitolina has been having a very up and down season so far with the Ukrainian player showing brilliant moments (Olympics) and terrible ones (Wimbledon). Heading in the US Open Svitolina was looking to pick up some good form electing to play in Chicago one week ahead of the Grand Slam. In the first round, she faced Clara Burel and it did not start well.

The French player was able to cause issues for Svitolina especially when she served. Despite those woes, Svitolina was able to take a 5-2 lead early which she squandered by losing 5 games in a row to lose the opening set 5-7. She got broken four times in that set winning only 6 of 19 2nd service points.

Things got better in the 2nd set as she finally found some rhythm while Burel was worse. Svitolina was able to take a quick 5-0 lead before closing out the set with 6-1. Burel's game deteriorated quickly and it was clear something bothered her. The 3rd set started with an early break for Svitolina.

At 2-0 for the Ukrainian Burel decided it was not worth it anymore and the French player retired from the match. A bit of a bumpy start for Svitolina who got a bit lucky in the match and she moves on to the 2nd round.