Yuliia Starodubtseva jolts No. 2 Elena Rybakina at French Open

Field Level Media|published: Wed 27th May, 13:43 2026

Mar 1, 2026; Indian Wells, CA, USA; Yuliia Starodubtseva (UKR) hits a shot against Elvina Kalieva (USA) during her qualifying match during the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Yuliia Starodubtseva recorded the biggest win of her career by posting a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory over second-seeded Elena Rybakina on Wednesday in the second round of the French Open in Paris.

Starodubtseva, a 26-year-old from the Ukraine who attended Old Dominion, bounced back from dropping the opening set to dispatch Rybakina in 2 hours, 28 minutes.

"Honestly hard to describe," Starodubtseva said in her on-court interview after the win. "I'm super happy. Elena is one of the top players. She's had an incredible year. I'm super proud of myself that I was able to do this today."

Starodubtseva broke twice to earn a 3-0 lead in the deciding set, however Rybakina forged a 4-4 tie before a series of miscues did her in. Starodubtseva jumped out to a 6-2 win in the tiebreaker before outlasting Rybakina, who lost in the second round of the French Open for the first time since 2020.

"I'm just proud of myself," Starodubtseva said. "It was a hard third set."

Rybakina's exit goes a long way toward Iga Swiatek's bid to win her fifth French Open title in the past seven years.

The third-seeded Swiatek, of Poland, breezed to a 6-2, 6-3 win over Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic. Swiatek broke her foe on seven occasions in the 91-minute victory.

"It was a tricky match in terms of the rhythm, because Sara plays differently than most of the players," Swiatek said. "But I'm happy with the way I adjusted and how I was making decisions, because sometimes, yeah, it was not so obvious when to go and attack and stay back.

"But at the end I felt it pretty good."

Seventh-seeded Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine coasted to a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Kaitlin Quevedo of Spain, while 11th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland cruised to a 6-4, 6-0 win over Caty McNally.

No. 15 Marta Kostyk of the Ukraine overcame a first-set misstep to notch a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 victory over Katie Volynets.

No. 27 Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic secured a 6-0, 7-6 (3) win over Francesca Jones of England.

No. 29 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and No. 32 Xinyu Wang of China were not as fortunate, falling in three sets to their respective opponents.

--Field Level Media

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