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Defending champion Elina Svitolina has beaten Karolina Pliskova in her opening round-robin match at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen.

Defending champion Elina Svitolina has opened her WTA Finals campaign in style with a straight-sets win over world No.2 Karolina Pliskova.

Svitolina's 7-6 (14-12) 6-4 victory leaves the Ukrainian in prime position to claim a semi-final berth for the second straight season after she won the title last year in Singapore.

The eighth seed needed seven set points to take the opening tiebreaker before sealing victory after one hour and 53 minutes in Shenzhen on Monday night.

Svitolina is the only player among this year's WTA Finals field who has yet to win a title in 2019, but could be saving her best for last, just like she did in Singapore 12 months ago.

"Definitely it's a big privilege for me, I still am not sure I believe that I won this event last year. It's a big honour for me and I'm enjoying every moment," the 25-year-old said.

The victory was Svitolina's fourth consecutive win over Pliskova, who initially ruled their head-to-head 5-0 before the Ukrainian turned the tables on her.

Svitolina plays US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and Wimbledon winner Simona Halep in her remaining two pool matches.

Pliskova, who also lost to Svitolina in the pool stages last year, must beat both Andreescu and Halep in her last two round-robin matches to have any hope of making the semi-finals.

Halep and Andreescu clash in the second Red Group fixture later on Monday.