{"id":668984,"date":"2026-05-27T23:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668984\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:25:08","slug":"starodubtseva-stuns-rybakina-in-deciding-shootout-roland-garros-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/668984\/","title":{"rendered":"Starodubtseva stuns Rybakina in deciding shootout &#8211; Roland-Garros 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI\u2019m very good at being patient but it was tough, I wasn\u2019t sure if I was ever going to make it,\u201d admitted Starodubtseva, who faces China\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rolandgarros.com\/en-us\/players\/38639-x.wang\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Wang Xiyu<\/a> next in Paris. \u201cInitially I was coaching everyone, all ages, clinics, and then my training at the same time. It was all taking a lot of time, 10 hours a day sometimes, it was so exhausting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI won the second tournament I played [in Texas, USA] and I had to make a decision. I made the qualies of the US Open within half a year and that gave me the belief to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old met her current coach and boyfriend Pearse Dolan at college. The duo are a formidable partnership as Starodubtseva made Roland-Garros qualifying in 2024, and last year she also made the main draw third round in Paris, a feat matched on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>There is a lifetime reward on offer for further progress by the world No.55.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy boyfriend told me if I break through top 50, he&#8217;ll propose,\u201d she told reporters in Paris. &#8220;He&#8217;s getting scared now, I&#8217;m getting close!&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine has disrupted Starodubtseva\u2019s family life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really miss home. I haven\u2019t been home for four years. It\u2019s hard because I miss everyone and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever see my home again. It\u2019s in territory I can\u2019t go back to, my home is ruined in a way,\u201d added the 26-year-old. \u2028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m very good at being patient but it was tough, I wasn\u2019t sure if I was ever going&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-668984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}