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PARIS — Elena Rybakina, the world No. 2 and one of the favorites for the French Open women’s title, lost her second-round match on a blistering Tuesday afternoon at Roland Garros.
Yuliia Starodubtseva, a 26-year-old from Ukraine who attended Old Dominion University in Virginia, registered the biggest win of her career.
Starodubtseva, the world No. 55, took advantage of a string of errors from Rybakina’s forehand and the Russian-born Kazakh’s lingering discomfort on outdoor clay to come back from a set down to beat Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(4).
Rybakina staged a comeback midway through the third set, knotting the score at 4-4 from 3-0 down. But the errors took over again down the stretch, as Starodubtseva held her serve twice with her back against the wall and played a smart and steady tiebreak to cross the finish line, as Rybakina again struggled to keep the ball on the court.
Starodubtseva, who had lost some of the conviction on her shots from 3-0 up, found it again in the most crucial moments, hitting winners and pinning Rybakina back during the 10-point tiebreak in ways that she could not find from 3-0 to 6-6.
Rybakina’s loss put an exclamation point on a massive afternoon for Iga Świątek’s chances of winning a fifth French Open title in seven years.
Świątek, the No. 3 seed, kicked off the day on Court Philippe-Chatrier with a solid 6-2, 6-3 win over Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic to make the final 32. At that point, Świątek still faced at least two major potential obstacles between her and the final.
First, there was a potential third-round duel against Jelena Ostapenko. Świątek is 0-6 against Ostapenko. Rybakina also loomed as a possible semifinal foe.
About 90 minutes after Świątek left the court, Ostapenko lost to Magda Linette 2-6, 6-2, 2-6. Soon after that, Rybakina, who won the opening set with ease, began to fall apart.
“I’m just proud of myself,” Starodubtseva said during her on-court interview. “It was a hard third set.”
Starodubtseva’s win also wrapped a banner day for Ukraine. Marta Kostyuk and Elina Svitolina, who won the last two tournaments before the French Open, also advanced.
Starodubtseva cracked open the tiebreak by lacing a crosscourt forehand right into the corner of the court. That stretched her lead to 7-3, putting her three points from her first top-10 win.
Then, she kicked in a first serve, and its arcing trajectory handcuffed Rybakina on her backhand. Starodubtseva then curved a backhand of her own to break the sideline and send Rybakina almost into the crowd.
The ball still came back, but Starodubtseva nailed a swinging backhand volley to get to match point.
She could not convert the first, but on her second chance, Rybakina gave her and Świątek the ending they wanted.
Rybakina had her share of challenges on Wednesday. Her coach, Stefano Vukov, has been sick, she said in her news conference, and had to leave the court mid-match. She said she knew that was a possibility from the start. Vukov had missed her practice session earlier in the week.
She also struggled to control the ball in the hot and dry conditions.
“The ball bounces so high that you need to really force the wrist, you need to play with fast hands,” she said. “And today it was not enough from my side. So even when I was not really attacking the ball, I was trying to keep it in play. I had too many mistakes.”
Indeed, Rybakina has 71 unforced errors on the day.
Starodubtseva said she expected Rybakina to fight her way back into the match. She tried not to think about having lost the lead when Rybakina drew even.
“Bring yourself to think it’s neutral,” she said in her news conference. “You start from the beginning, it doesn’t matter what just happened. Just kind of, like, okay, 0-0, 0-1. Let’s just start again. Let’s not think about the past and move on.”
Move on she did, the latest, and maybe most surprising, Ukrainian to roll into the final 32.
“it’s really, really cool how it’s like so many Ukrainians playing a final, winning a tournament,” she said. “Like you see Ukrainian on WTA Instagram every time. I find it really cool. It’s inspiring.”