Yuliia Starodubtseva Shocks No.2 Seed Elena Rybakina in French Open Thriller

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! (IANS)

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