Elena Rybakina crashed out of the French Open as the second seed fell to a three-set defeat to Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva in the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
Rybakina, the Australian Open champion, looked on course for the third round when she won the opening set but Starodubtseva turned the match around in what became a lengthy battle in gruelingly hot conditions.
The world No 55 built on a one-sided second set to earn a double-break in the third, but Rybakina responded to force the deciding match tiebreak.
Starodubtseva, however, immediately took charge of the tiebreak to convincingly close out a 3-6 6-1 7-6 (10-4) victory, claiming the biggest win of her career and first top-10 victory.
“It’s hard to describe, I’m super happy,” Starodubtseva, 26, said in her on-court interview. “Elena is one of the top players. She has had an incredible year and I’m super proud of myself that I was able to do this today. It was a hard third set, but got it done.
“She’s again one of the top players, and you, you can’t be thinking that it’s going to be easy today. Even at 3-0 [in the third set], I had a feeling it might not be that easy. Tough match, but happy to be the winner today.”
Rybakina could have replaced Aryna Sabalenka as world No 1 depending on their performances in Paris but is still yet to progress past the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in eight attempts.
The former Wimbledon champion had won a clay-court title this year, however, triumphing in Stuttgart, and her early exit removes a potential obstacle from four-time champion Iga Swiatek’s side of the draw.
Meanwhile, Starodubtseva equals the best result of her career by reaching the third round of the French Open for a second consecutive year.
She is the third player from Ukraine into the third round of the women’s singles draw at Roland Garros, following seventh seed and Italian Open champion Elina Svitolina and 15th seed and Madrid Open champion Marta Kostyuk.
“I think clay is not the worst surface for me,” Starodubtseva said. “And the crowd was very, very nice today to me. Thank you guys. I really, really felt the support today. I heard my name so many times and I really appreciate it.”
