World No. 2 Elena Rybakina lost on Wednesday in the second round of Roland-Garros, beaten 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10/4) by the Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva (55th).
Winner of two Grand Slam titles, including the last Australian Open, the Kazakhstani is the first of the favorites in the women’s draw to leave Paris. She had not lost this early in a Grand Slam since her defeat in the second round of the US Open in the summer of 2024.
At Roland-Garros, she remained in the round of 16 in 2025, after reaching the quarterfinals in 2021 and 2024.
At 26, Starodubtseva had never beaten a member of the top 10. She equaled her best run at Roland Garros after having already reached the third round in 2025.
Her next opponent will be the American Hailey Baptiste (26th) or the Chinese Wang Xiyu (148th).
“Elena is one of the best players in the world, I am so proud of what I managed to do,” Starodubtseva marveled during her post-match interview.
“Clay is not my worst surface and the public was very, very nice to me,” said the recent finalist of the WTA 500 in Charleston, contested on green clay. Thank you guys, I heard my name so many times in the stands today,” she told the audience.
On a Suzanne-Lenglen court crushed by heat (33°C in the shade), like every day since the start of the tournament, Elena Rybakina experienced a sudden drop in power at the start of the second set.
Quickly trailing 5-0, Aryna Sabalenka’s runner-up in the WTA rankings managed to win a game before losing the second set 6-1 in 32 minutes.
Leaving the court to regain her senses, Rybakina continued to suffer at the start of the third set, conceding her serve twice to find herself trailing 3-0. She patiently caught up, first coming back to 3-2 before erasing her second break behind to get back to 4-4.
The two players then kept their serve until the super tie-break, clearly dominated by Starodubtseva, who concluded on her second match point.
