Australian Open champion, Elena Rybakina, crashed out of the French Open in the second round on Wednesday after suffering a stunning defeat to Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva at Roland Garros.
The Kazakh world number two surrendered a one-set advantage to lose 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10/4) in a dramatic contest on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
“Honestly, hard to describe, I’m super happy,” said world number 55 Starodubtseva after beating a top-10 opponent for the first time in her career.
“I’m super proud of myself that I was able to do this today. It was a tricky third set but I got it done in the end.”
The defeat marked Rybakina’s earliest exit from a WTA event since the 2025 Miami Open and her first loss within the opening two rounds of a Grand Slam since the 2024 Australian Open.
Starodubtseva will next face either American 26th seed Hailey Baptiste or China’s Wang Xiyu in the battle for a place in the last 16.
The Ukrainian has now equalled her best Grand Slam performance, having reached the third round at last year’s French Open as a lucky loser before falling to Jasmine Paolini.
Rybakina looked firmly in control early on, racing to a 5-1 lead before comfortably taking the opening set under the hot Paris conditions.
However, momentum quickly shifted in favour of Starodubtseva, who stormed through the first five games of the second set before levelling the match.
The world number 55 continued her charge in the deciding set, breaking twice to establish a 3-0 lead and push Rybakina to the brink.
Rybakina fought back strongly, recovering one break before drawing level at 4-4 after another crucial break of serve.
But Starodubtseva steadied herself in time, holding serve in the 12th game to force a deciding tie-break.
The breaker began poorly for Rybakina with a double fault, allowing Starodubtseva to seize control and open up a commanding 6-2 advantage.
The Ukrainian sealed the biggest victory of her career on her second match point after Rybakina fired a forehand wide.
“You can’t be thinking it will be easy, even at 3-0 (in the third set), I was thinking this might still not be easy,” said Starodubtseva.
