Former champion Elina Svitolina made a winning start to the National Bank Open presented by Rogers on Tuesday with a 6-0, 6-2 win over American Shelby Rogers. 

The Ukrainian needed just 1 hour and 10 minutes to book a spot in the second round, improving her head-to-head record against Rogers to 5-0 in the process. She was dominant in all facets of the game: Svitolina broke serve six times, saved six of the seven break points she faced, and won 60% of points on both serve and return.

Toronto: Scores | Draws | Order of Play 

Svitolina is now 13-7 in her career at the Canadian WTA 1000 event, and is competing in Toronto this week for the first time since 2019 under the watchful eye of her former coach, Andrew Bettles, whom she reunited with after splitting with Raemon Sluiter last month. She was on maternity leave when the event was last held in Toronto in 2021.

The first set was closer than the scoreline indicated with three games stretching past deuce -- but Svitolina won them all. In total, the Ukrainian won nine straight games to begin the match, which included holds in the first and third games of the second set from 15-40 deficits. Her defense helped keep her in points -- Svitolina said she moved "really well" in her post-match on-court interview -- and led to Rogers hitting 35 unforced errors in 14 games. 

Highlights: Uchijima def. Tomova | Wang Yafan def. Kenin

Svitolina will next face her countrywoman, No.11 seed Marta Kostyuk, who also had an uncomplicated opening victory -- 6-0, 6-2 over Germany's Tatjana Maria. The two Ukrainians have only played once previously -- a 6-2, 6-2 win for Svitolina in the third round of the 2018 Australian Open -- when Kostyuk was 15 years old and Svitolina was a Top 5 player. 

Rain disrupted play early on in the first day of main-draw action, but other notable results included:

  • A routine 6-2, 6-2 winner over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka, the No.12 seed. Azarenka has now won seven of the pair's nine career meetings, and her 1 hour and 16-minute win was her 204th at WTA 1000 level -- which leads the Hologic WTA Tour.
  • A 7-5, 7-6(3) win for China's Wang Yafan over 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. Wang, who was the No.4 seed in qualifying, is making her tournament debut and will be the first opponent for top seed Coco Gauff.
  • A comeback win for Poland's Magdalena Frech over Anastasia Potapova 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. The World No.50 won five of the last six games in the second set, and the last seven games of the match.