Starodubtseva Shocks No. 2 Rybakina in Roland Garros Upset

By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Photo credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty

On a searing day, Elena Rybakina was left Star Struck at Roland Garros.

Yulia Starodubtseva shocked world No. 2 Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(10-4) in the second round scoring her first career Top 10 win and ending the Australian Open champion’s shot for a calendar Grand Slam.

The second-seeded Rybakina joins No. 5-seeded American Jessica Pegula, who lost last night, as the second Top 10 seed to fall in the second round.

“Yeah, just pity, because I think I was practicing well before French Open, and I was feeling also good on the practices and thought that I can raise the level,” Rybakina said. “But actually today it was very bad performance, too many unforced errors, and, yeah, didn’t feel the greatest.

“So I was trying to find a way, but it clearly didn’t work.”

A calm Starodubtseva outplayed a twitchy Rybakina in the tiebreaker. 

Blistering temperatures sent the ball sailing at times and Starodubtseva, who hits with more topspin on her groundstrokes, controlled her forehand with much more command in the tiebreaker than the Kazakh. Rybakina committed 71 unforced errors nearly doubling Starodubtseva’s 36 errors.

Continuing to fire away, Rybakina committed four forehand errors in the extra session, including sending a forehand wide on Starodubtseva’s second match point to end a two hour, 28-minute triumph on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The upset ensures Aryna Sabalenka, who has held the world No. 1 ranking for 84 consecutive weeks, will retain the top spot after Roland Garros.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Rybakina suffered her first Roland Garros second-round exit since 2020, snapping her streak of eight straight major match wins.

World No. 55 Starodubtseva was winless in six prior Top 10 clashes, including bowing to Jessica Pegula in last month’s Charleston Open final 6-2, 6-2.

Scoring the biggest win over her career, an inspired Starodubtseva joined a successful surge of Ukrainian women in Paris.

Earlier, Madrid champion Marta Kostyuk rallied past American Katie Volynets 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3. The 15th-seeded Kostyuk scored her 13th straight victory raising her 2026 clay-court record to 13-0—the only woman in the field undefeated on dirt this season. Kostyuk shared the horrifying story of how Russian missiles destroyed a building about 100 meters from her family’s home prior to her first-round win.

Rome champion Elina Svitolina, who survived a fierce first-round test, swept 126th-ranked Spaniard  Kaitlin Quevedo 6-0, 6-4 for her eighth straight clay-court win.

Four time French Open quarterfinalist Svitolina will face Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch, who advanced to the Roland Garros third round for the first time. Svitolina said Ukrainian women are inspired by the support they receive from compatriots in their war-ravaged homeland.

“In a way for me it’s how I can be useful for my country, how I can help the next generation of motivating them, introducing them to sport, and helping them with that, because that’s the only way that I see things going forward,” Svitolina said. “Because just doing something that you cannot control everything and everybody, so in a way, me personally, I want to control what I can control is the things that how I can be useful for my country.”

Though Rybakina rallied from a double break down Love-3 winning six of the next eight games to edge ahead 6-5 in the decider, Starodubtseva was not fazed.

Starodubtseva stamped a strong hold at 15 to force the tiebreaker.

Then’s when Rybakina’s return game and forehand really failed her under stress.

In retrospect, Rybakina said she should have tried to spin the ball more and get to net to shorten points, but as a shadow swallowed the court, Starodubtseva shined in the breaker.

“I won’t say that physically I felt really bad. There was matches when I felt worse. Definitely the energy was not there,” Rybakina said. “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.

“Yeah, 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.

“Yeah, in such condition you really need to be super patient, try to spin the ball as much as you can, and,
yeah, definitely come to the net. 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.”

The second seed committed three forehand errors in a five-point span as Starodubtseva stretched her tiebreaker lead to 6-2.

A bold Starodubtseva slammed a swing volley winner for a handful of match points at 9-3. 

Starodubtseva sealed a stirring win on her second match point and will meet either 26th-seeded American Hailey Baptiste or Wang Xinyu for a spot in the round of 16.