The Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and American Venus Williams were unable to advance to the second round of the WTA 250 doubles tournament held in Auckland, New Zealand, with a prize pool of $283,347.
The duo lost to the pair of Alexandra Eala/Iva Jovic (Philippines/USA) with a score of 6:7 (7:9), 1:6, as reported by Ukrinform.
In the first set, Svitolina and Williams led 5:3, but Venus failed to serve for the set in the ninth game, and then they missed eight set points (three on return in the subsequent games and another two in the tiebreak).
The match lasted for one and a half hours.