Starodubtseva delivers latest upset, edges Rybakina at Roland Garros

Ukraine's Yuliia Starodubtseva had faced a top-10 opponent six previous times before her second-round match at Roland Garros but had never come away with a win. On Wednesday, on one of the biggest stages in tennis, the 26-year-old Ukrainian pulled off the biggest victory of her career and the biggest upset of this year’s tournament with a dramatic three-set win over second-seeded Elena Rybakina in Paris.

Rybakina starts strong to capture first set

Rybakina, who could have left Paris as the World No. 1 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, broke Starodubtseva at her first opportunity to take a 3-0 lead. She earned a second break to go up 5-1 before the Ukrainian fought back. Rybakina, however, served out the opening set 6-3.

Starodubtseva wins second set and takes early lead in third

Starodubtseva turned the tables in the second set, breaking Rybakina twice to race to a 5-0 lead en route to a 6-1 set win. With the momentum on her side, she broke twice early in the decider to go up 3-0 and move within touching distance of the big win.

Rybakina fights back but falls in third-set tiebreak

Just when it looked like Rybakina was headed toward the exit, Rybakina rediscovered her rhythm and recovered both breaks to level the set at 4-4. With the match moving into a third-set tiebreak, Starodubtseva jumped to a 6-2 lead and this time held on to close out a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4) victory in 2 hours, 28 minutes.

"I kind of expected a fight back anyways, and once it got to 3-All, I don't think I played much worse," she said after the match. "I think she stepped up a bit. Maybe I helped her a bit, but I don't think much. At 3-All, and I think she was 4-3 up? I feel like it was just more important to bring yourself to think it's neutral. You start from the beginning, it doesn't matter what just happened. Just kind of, like, okay, 0-0, 0-1. Let's just start again. Let's not think about the past and move on."

The key statistic from the match was Rybakina’s 71 unforced errors compared with 23 winners, while Starodubtseva finished with 36 unforced errors and 13 winners.

Starodubtseva advanced to the third round in Paris for the second straight year, which remains her best result at a Grand Slam tournament.  The result continues an upward trend for her in 2026. She began the season ranked outside the top 100 but is up to No. 55 in the WTA PIF Rankings after reaching her first WTA 500 final in Charleston.

"I feel like if you are trying to beat one of the best, you have to think that you can beat the best," Starodubtseva told the media after her win. "I was trying to go into this match with this mindset, try not to give too much respect, even though she's a great player and someone you can look up to. She's obviously No. 2 in the world. But I feel like, again, if you're trying to be one of those players, you need to start and believe you can beat them."

For Rybakina, whose 31 match-wins are the most by any player on tour this season, the loss marked her earliest exit in Paris since 2020, when she also lost in the second round.

"Definitely the energy was not there," the Kazakh told the media after the match. "I just couldn't find the right balance on the ball. It was very slippery. In some moments I was just putting my legs, but it was everything out of rhythm. It's tough to say. I think that on the practices it was not as bad. Definitely when it's so hot, the ball is flying. It's very difficult to control. Especially me being always aggressive, trying to play fast and step in, if you don't give enough spin or if your hands are not as fast, the ball is flying everywhere. For me it was, as I said, too many mistakes that I can't even talk about coming to the net and all these things."