Yuliia Starodubtseva has engineered one of the biggest upsets at Roland Garros in recent memory.
The Ukrainian, ranked 55th on the WTA Tour, defeated world number two Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
It was simply a poor performance by the Kazakh star – she struck over 70 unforced errors during the match.
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Starodubtseva will play the winner of Xinyu Wang and Hailey Baptiste in the third round.
The Ukrainian, who also reached the third round of last year’s Roland Garros event, offered her immediate reaction to the result while speaking with former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli.
Yulia Starodubtseva reacts after beating Elena Rybakina
“Thank you. Honestly, hard to describe. I’m super happy. I mean, Elena is one of the top players,” the Ukrainian said on TNT Sports after stunning the two-time Grand Slam champion.
“She has an incredible year. I’m super proud of myself I was able to do this today. And I mean, it was a hard third set, but got it done, you know?” [laughing]
Starodubtseva looked to be in total control of the match when she led 3-0 with a double break in the third set.
Rybakina endeavoured, fighting back to claim a 5-4 lead.
Marion Bartoli asked the 26-year-old what she was thinking when Rybakina began to come back into the contest.
“I feel like someone like Elena, I mean, I expect it from her,” the Ukrainian continued.
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“She’s, again, one of the top players and you can’t be thinking that it’s going to be easy today. Even at 3-0, I had a feeling it might not be that easy, which appeared to be not to.
“Yeah, tough match but happy to be the winner today.”
This is not the first time Starodubtseva has made an appearance in the Roland Garros third round.
Last year, the 26-year-old qualifier reached the fourth round before losing to Jasmine Paolini.
Bartoli asked the Ukrainian: “What is it about, maybe, this tournament, maybe the crowd, maybe the clay, that suits you so well that gets you the best results?”
Starodubtseva responded by acknowledging her proficiency on the surface, before sending a message to the Roland Garros crowd.
“I think clay is not the worst surface for me, first of all,” she said.
“And the crowd was very, very nice today to me. Thank you, guys. Thank you. I really, really felt the support today.
“I heard my name so many times and I really appreciated it.”
Yuliia Starodubtseva makes Open Era history
As per statisticians OptaAce, Yuliia Starodubtseva is the first player to claim a third-set tie break win against a top-five seeded opponent in Women’s Singles at Roland Garros in the Open Era.
The 26-year-old will play the winner of Xinyu Wang and Hailey Baptiste in the next round
Baptiste has won both of her two previous matches against the Ukrainian: at ITF events in 2023 and 2024.
Wang has a 1-0 record against Starodubtseva, last beating the 26-year-old at an ITF event in 2023.
As for Elena Rybakina, she will now turn her attention towards the grass-court swing.
The Kazakh is set to begin her grass-court campaign at the Berlin Open.
