Reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina was sent crashing out of Roland Garros on Wednesday, beaten 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4) by Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva in the biggest upset of the 2026 tournament so far.
The second seed, who arrived in Paris with a genuine chance of leaving as the new world No. 1, was outplayed for long stretches on Court Suzanne-Lenglen by an opponent ranked 53 places below her. The result ends Rybakina’s bid for a second Grand Slam title of the season and marks the first time since 2020 that she has failed to reach the third round at Roland Garros.
On Court Suzanne-Lenglen. Rybakina struck first and hard, breaking Starodubtseva immediately to take a 3-0 lead in the opening set, then breaking again for 5-1 before sealing the set 6-3. The match appeared to be following a familiar script. But the Kazakh’s level dipped sharply in the second, and Starodubtseva levelled with a 6-1 second-set rout in barely half an hour.
The decider followed the same volatile pattern. Starodubtseva surged 3-0 ahead, only for Rybakina to claw her way back to 4-4 with a series of holds and a single break. The Ukrainian held her nerve through the closing exchanges and forced a tiebreak, which she dominated 10-4 to seal the win. The key number from the match was Rybakina’s unforced error count: 71, against just 23 winners. Starodubtseva, by contrast, finished with 13 winners and 36 unforced errors.
A career-best win. For Starodubtseva, the result snaps a six-match losing streak against top-10 opponents and stands as the biggest victory of her career. The 26-year-old former college player at Old Dominion University, who briefly worked as a tennis coach in the United States before turning professional full-time, becomes the first woman in the Open era to win a third-set tiebreak against a top-five seed at Roland Garros.
She advances to the third round in Paris for the second consecutive year, equalling her best Grand Slam result. Started the season ranked outside the top 100, Starodubtseva has climbed to a career-high No. 55 on the back of a run to her first WTA 500 final in Charleston earlier this spring.
“Honestly, it’s hard to describe. I’m super happy. Elena is one of the top players, has had an incredible year,” Starodubtseva told TNT Sports in her on-court interview with Marion Bartoli. “I expected her to come back. You can’t be thinking it’s ever going to be easy, even at 3-0 up in the decider, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be easy.”
She added: “I feel like if you are trying to beat one of the best, you have to think that you can beat the best.”
Looking ahead. Starodubtseva will face the winner of Hailey Baptiste and Wang Xiyu for a place in the round of 16. For Rybakina, the loss represents a significant blow at the midpoint of a season that began with her capturing the Australian Open in January and climbing to a career-high No. 2 in March. The exit is also a missed opportunity in the race for the world No. 1 ranking, with Aryna Sabalenka still in the draw and on course to extend her stay at the top.
The defeat reshapes the bottom half of the women’s draw, removing one of the most dangerous title contenders and opening a clear path for Sabalenka, defending champion Coco Gauff, and Elina Svitolina, who all remain in the half.
