In the second round encounter, a huge surprise was delivered by young Ukrainian tennis player Yuliya Starodubtseva (WTA-55), who defeated Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina (WTA-2), this year’s Australian Open champion, with a score of 3:6, 6:1, 7:6(4).
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The Ukrainian had taken a two break lead in the third set (3:3), but just moments later was forced to chase the titled opponent. Ultimately, everything was decided in a tiebreak, where the 26-year-old player showed cooler nerves.
The victory over the world number two is so far the most significant in J. Starodubtseva’s career. Until now, the young player had never defeated a Top 10 opponent, but in April she reached the final of the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston, defeating another Grand Slam champion Madison Keys (WTA-19) along the way.
“It’s very hard to describe my emotions. I am incredibly happy because Elena is one of the best tennis players in the world. Even when leading 3:0 in the third set, I felt that it was not over yet. I am glad that I finally managed to win,” she said.
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The Ukrainian reaches the third round of Roland Garros for the second year in a row – last year she lost to Jasmine Paolini (WTA-13), and this year she will have to play against Hailey Baptiste (WTA-26) or Xiyu Wang (WTA-148).
By the way, on Wednesday two more Ukrainian representatives secured their tickets to the next round – Elina Svitolina (WTA-7) and Marta Kostyuk (WTA-15).
