Paris: Yuliia Starodubtseva served up an almighty shock to overcome No.2 seed Elena Rybakina with an inspired comeback on Court Suzanne-Lenglen in a women’s singles match of the French Open on Wednesday. The world No.55 was 0-6 in matches against top-10 opponents until Wednesday, but reached an inspired level of play to dismiss Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6[10-4].
The 26-year-old Ukrainian pulled off the biggest victory of her career and the biggest upset of this year’s tournament with a dramatic three-set win over Rybakina.
Starodubtseva, a former college player and tennis coach in the United States, returns to the Roland-Garros third round to meet either No.26 seed Hailey Baptiste or China’s Wang Xiyu.
“Honestly, it’s hard to describe. I’m super happy. Elena is one of the top players and has had an incredible year,” said the 26-year-old. “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. That was so!
“It was a very hard third set, a very tough match, but I got it done! I’m very proud I could do this today,” she said.
Rybakina, who could have left Paris as the world No. 1 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, broke Starodubtseva at her first opportunity to take a 3-0 lead. She earned a second break to go up 5-1 before the Ukrainian fought back. The Kazakh, however, served out the opening set 6-3.
Starodubtseva turned the tables in the second set, breaking Rybakina twice to race to a 5-0 lead en route to a 6-1 set win. With the momentum on her side, she broke twice early in the decider to go up 3-0 and move within touching distance of the big win.
Just when it looked like Rybakina was headed toward the exit, the Kazakh rediscovered her rhythm and recovered both breaks to level the set at 4-4. With the match moving into a third-set tiebreak, Starodubtseva jumped to a 6-2 lead and this time held on to close out a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4) victory in 2 hours, 28 minutes.
The key statistic from the match was Rybakina’s 71 unforced errors compared with 23 winners, while Starodubtseva finished with 36 unforced errors and 13 winners.
(IANS)
