The 26-year-old Ukrainian pulled off the biggest victory of her career and the biggest upset of this year\u2019s tournament with a dramatic three-set win over Rybakina.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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\u2019s Wang Xiyu.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s hard to describe. I\u2019m super happy. Elena is one of the top players and has had an incredible year,\u201d said the 26-year-old. \u201cI expected her to come back. You can\u2019t be thinking it\u2019s ever going to be easy, even at 3-0 up (in the decider). I had a feeling it wasn\u2019t going to be easy. That was so!<\/p>\r\n\r\n
\u201cIt was a very hard third set, a very tough match, but I got it done! I\u2019m very proud I could do this today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The key statistic from the match was Rybakina\u2019s 71 unforced errors compared with 23 winners, while Starodubtseva finished with 36 unforced errors and 13 winners.<\/p>\r\n\r\n