Elina Svitolina has spoken after suffering a heavy defeat to Mirra Andreeva in her opening match at the 2026 WTA Finals in Indian Wells.

World No 6 Svitolina was beaten 6-4, 6-0 by world No 3 Andreeva in Group 2 at the season-ending championships on Monday.

The Ukrainian was playing her first match since her shock loss to Sonay Kartal in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open last month.

In a post-match interview with the WTA, Svitolina said: “I feel the first set was not too bad.

“I missed a few of my opportunities, and then I think she picked up a good level in the second.

“I tried my best to find the plan B, but it didn’t work unfortunately. I think it’ll be important for me for the next match just to to work on a few things, some tactical things. Tomorrow is a day where you just press the reset button and go from there.”

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It was Svitolina’s first match at the WTA Finals since she was beaten by Ashleigh Barty in the final of the 2019 edition in Shenzhen.

The 32-year-old spoke about her return to the prestigious event, which she won in 2018.

“Yeah, I feel it’s like a reward to be back after so many years, and of course I have great memories winning, making final as well,” said Svitolina.

“So for me it’s just a special year to be, now a mom, and also qualify still to play this special event.

“Yeah, just, I will look back definitely now. It’s difficult because, of course, you know, losing today, but definitely will look back after the season is done and just be proud of the effort.”

Svitolina also looked ahead to her second round robin match against world No 7 Karolina Muchova.

“Yeah, there’s gonna be definitely a different plan for that one,” she said.

“I played a couple of times, I know a few things that I have to work on tomorrow to be better and also that can work against her. I think it will be important for me to focus on myself, on the execution.

“And yeah, it’s gonna be a fun match. She’s a tricky player, lots of variety on her game. So yeah, I will try to do my very best to be ready for that.”