May 27 (UPI) — Yulia Starodubtseva netted one of the most significant upsets of the 2026 French Open, ousting No. 2 Elena Rybakina in Wednesday’s second round.
The Ukrainian, who sits at No. 55 in the WTA rankings, broke Rybakina’s serve five times in the 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 triumph in Paris. She also logged 36 unforced errors, compared to 71 for Rybakina.
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“I’m super happy,” Starodubtseva said. “Elena is one of the top players. She’s had an incredible year. I’m super proud of myself that I was able to do this today.
“It was a hard third set, but I got it done.”
Starodubtseva will meet No. 8 Mirra Andreeva of Russia or No. 175 Marina Bassols Ribera of Spain in the third round.
“I think i was practicing well before the French Open,” Rybakina told reporters. “I was feeling good at the practices and thought I could raise the level. But today was a bad performance. Too many unforced errors and I didn’t feel the greatest.
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“I was trying to find a way, but clearly it didn’t work.”
No. 3 Iga Swiatek of Poland beat No. 35 Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday at Court Philippe-Chatrier.
“She was pretty good in defense, and I had many opportunities to attack,” Swiatek said. “So when you attack, you’re going to make more mistakes, because it’s easier to push the ball back than to actually add a lot of energy to it and try to open the court.”
Swiatek will face will meet countrywoman Magda Linette (No. 73) in the third round. Linette ousted No. 31 Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in her second-round match.
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No. 7 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, No. 11 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and No. 13 Jasmine Paolini of Italy were the other top women’s players to advance through early matches Wednesday at Roland Garros.
No. 4 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, No. 7 Alex de Minaur of Australia, No. 13 Andrey Rublev of Russia and No. 15 Karen Khachanov of Russia were among the top men to advance on Day 4 of the clay-court Grand Slam.
Djokovic advanced through 6-3, 6-2, 6(7)-7, 6-3 victory over No. 74 Valentin Royer of France. The three-time French Open champion will battle No. 30 Joao Fonseca of Brazil or No. 72 Dino Prizmic of Croatia in the third round.
Additional second-round French Open coverage will air at 6 a.m. EDT Thursday on TNT. Third-round coverage will start Friday on the same network.
