On Wednesday at Roland Garros, we witnessed the demise of No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina at the hands of Yuliia Starodubsteva.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roland Garros:\u00a0Scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Order of play<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Draws<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n A day later came the most shocking result the sport has seen in some time. On the men\u2019s side, World No. 1 Jannik Sinner — winner of 30 straight matches — succumbed to Juan Manuel Cerundolo and the conditions, joining Rybakina as a second-round exit in Paris.<\/p>\n Nothing is guaranteed in this sport, especially on one of its biggest stages. For the top players who survive and advance, sometimes that alone is good enough.<\/p>\n Stock Watch<\/p>\n Among the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz contenders still standing after Round 2 is No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Elsa Jacquemot in straight sets Thursday, leaving just one French player in the draw (more on that shortly). Defending champion and No. 4 seed Coco Gauff then handled business against Mayar Sherif, allowing both to join fellow top-four seed Iga Swiatek in the third round.<\/p>\n They remain the favorites to reach the semifinals in their respective sections, while Rybakina\u2019s early departure opens the door for those in her quarter.<\/p>\n Five players appear best positioned to capitalize: No. 8 Mirra Andreeva, No. 10 Karolina Muchova, No. 18 Sorana Cirstea, No. 27 Marie Bouzkova and Starodubtseva, who stunned Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4) in 2 hours and 28 minutes to vault herself into contention.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the case for each in what was Rybakina’s quarter of the draw to lose, based on 2026 clay-court form and past success on the surface, particularly at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n Andreeva<\/p>\n 17-3 on clay this season, with losses to Rybakina, Gauff and Marta Kostyuk in the Madrid final Muchova<\/p>\n 6-2 on clay this season Cirstea<\/p>\n 12-3 on clay this season with losses to Andreeva and Gauff (twice), the second in the Rome semifinals Bouzkova<\/p>\n 9-3 on clay this season Starodubtseva<\/p>\n 13-6 on clay this season across all levels, including qualifying Players on the rise<\/p>\n Leading this list is, of course, Starodubtseva. The 26-year-old from Ukraine made waves earlier this season with a surprise run to the Charleston final, where she lost to Jessica Pegula.<\/p>\n But after defeating Rybakina — who entered the tournament with an outside shot at the No. 1 ranking — she is no longer a plucky underdog but a force to be reckoned with. She\u2019ll be favored in her next match against Wang Xiyu, who advanced after Hailey Baptiste retired with an injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n While we wait for more news there, we\u2019re sending well wishes and positive vibes her way.<\/p>\n If Starodubtseva gets through Wang, a projected fourth-round meeting with Cirstea awaits. The Romanian is looking to reach her first Roland Garros quarterfinal in 17 (\ud83e\udee8) years!<\/p>\n Others to watch include Maria Sakkari and Daria Kasatkina, former Top 10 players who have struggled with form in recent seasons. But both have looked strong this week and are through to the third round. Sakkari rallied past Claire Liu in three sets, while Kasatkina won a second-set tiebreak 13-11 to beat Susan Bandecchi in straight sets.<\/p>\n Last but not least, keep an eye on Maja Chwalinska. The Polish qualifier experienced a bit of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu Thursday, upsetting No. 23 seed Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-0, the same scoreline she used to knock out last year\u2019s quarterfinalist Zheng Qinwen in the first round.<\/p>\n Chwalinska has now served up a bagel in four of her five matches so far between qualifying and the main draw in Paris. And with wins by Swiatek and Magda Linette on Wednesday, her victory means three Polish women will feature in a Grand Slam third round for the first time.<\/p>\n The last French hope<\/p>\n Just one local favorite remains, as Jacquemot\u2019s exit leaves Diane Parry carrying the tri-colored flag.<\/p>\n Parry did her part Thursday by becoming the latest unseeded player to knock off a seed, defeating No. 30 Ann Li 6-3, 6-4 in just over one and a half hours on Court Philippe-Chatrier. In doing so, she equaled her best Grand Slam result, reaching the third round for the sixth time and the second time at Roland Garros (2022).<\/p>\n She was magnifique on serve, winning a staggering 86% (30 of 35) of her first-serve points. Her reward for that superbe performance is a first meeting with another American in No. 6 seed Amanda Anisimova.<\/p>\n Odds and ends<\/p>\n Match of the round honors, as dubbed by yours truly, goes to Starodubtseva vs. Rybakina. After the World No. 2 took the opening set, Starodubtseva won nine of the next 10 games to take the second set 6-1 and build a 3-0 lead in the decider. The Ukrainian staved off a late rally by Rybakina and locked in for the tiebreak to seal the upset.<\/p>\n Rybakina wasn\u2019t the only seed to bite the dust in Round 2, as Solana Sierra ousted No. 13 seed Jasmine Paolini in three sets. Other seeds to fall were No. 23 Mertens, No. 26 Baptiste, No. 29 Jelena Ostapenko — we were tantalizingly close to Penko-Swiatek Part 7 — No. 30 Li and No. 32 Wang Xinyu. That leaves 18 of 32 seeds remaining in the draw. To bring us home, the longest match of the second round was a 3-hour, 30-minute thriller between Camila Osorio and Yulia Putintseva. It\u2019s the second-longest match on the WTA Tour in 2026, finishing one minute shy of Jacquemot\u2019s first-round win over Kostyuk at the Australian Open. Putintseva saved four match points in the second set — all with clean winners — to force a decider, but Osorio pulled out the victory in the end to reach her first Grand Slam third round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday at Roland Garros, we witnessed the demise of No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina at the hands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":["post-701328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWins over Swiatek, Cirstea and Jelena Ostapenko
\nTwo career clay-court titles (Linz 2026, Iasi 2024)
\n2025 Roland Garros quarterfinalist; 2024 semifinalist<\/p>\n
\nWins over Gauff and Elina Svitolina
\n2026 Stuttgart runner-up
\n2023 Roland Garros finalist<\/p>\n
\nWins over Sabalenka, Ostapenko and Linda Noskova
\n2021 Istanbul champion
\n2009 Roland Garros quarterfinalist<\/p>\n
\nWin over Katerina Siniakova
\n2026 Bogota champion<\/p>\n
\nWins over Rybakina and Madison Keys
\n2026 Charleston runner-up<\/p>\n
\nDuring her press conference after the breakthrough victory, Starodubsteva told reporters that her boyfriend (and coach), Pearse Dolan, has promised that if she cracks the Top 50 of the PIF WTA Rankings, he’ll propose. “He’s getting scared now,” she said with a laugh.
\nIn light of a perhaps unexpected proposal, how about the remaining draw for unexpected? Who could have foreseen matches between Starodubtseva and Wang Xiyu and Sakkari and Chwalinska for spots in the fourth round? Of the four, only Sakkari has reached that stage, last doing so at the 2022 Australian Open. For that reason, I\u2019m bestowing Round 3 “Match to watch\u201d honors on those two matches, along with No. 8 Andreeva vs. No. 27 Bouzkova and No. 16 Naomi Osaka vs. No. 17 Iva Jovic.<\/p>\n