By Shrivathsa Sridhar for Reuters in Paris.
Elena Rybakina was sent spinning out of the French Open after a 3-6 6-1 7-6(10-4) loss to Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva in the second round on Wednesday, leaving the women’s draw short of a genuine contender for the title in Paris.
Russian-born Kazakh Rybakina arrived at Roland Garros as the second seed following her Australian Open victory in January and earned her tour-leading 31st match victory after dismantling Veronika Erjavec in the opening round.
The 26-year-old was unable to conjure up her best form on Court Suzanne Lenglen, however, as she wilted in the deciding set tiebreak and handed the victory to her opponent with a forehand that went long.
“Honestly it’s hard to describe, I’m super happy,” said Starodubtseva as she soaked up cheers from the crowd.
“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. It was a hard third set, but I got it done.”
It was world number 55 Starodubtseva’s first top-five win and she will take on American Hailey Baptiste or China’s Wang Xiyu in the third round.
Twice Grand Slam champion Rybakina did not help her own cause, committing 71 unforced errors in a match that featured 107 in total, but she began to mount a spirited fightback towards the end.
“I expected her to come back,” said Starodubtseva, who was previously 0-6 in matches against top-10 opponents.
“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. Tough match, but happy to be the winner today.”
Rybakina, who lifted a clay title indoors in Stuttgart in the build-up to Roland Garros, was left to rue the errors that ultimately proved costly.
“It’s just a pity, because I think I was practising well before the French Open and I was feeling good,” she said.
“I thought that I can raise the level, but actually today it was a very bad performance, too many unforced errors, and yeah, I didn’t feel the greatest. I was trying to find a way, but it clearly didn’t work.
“I won’t say that physically I felt really bad. There have been matches when I felt worse. Definitely, the energy wasn’t there. I just couldn’t find the right balance on the ball.”