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Rybakina becomes the highest seeded player eliminated from the French Open
May 27, 2026 at 12:32 pm ET • 1 min read
The first round of the 2026 French Open featured a handful of major upsets, but none as ground-shaking as what happened on Wednesday in the women's draw to start the second round when Yuliia Starodubtseva stunned No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4).
Rybakina looked in control early, but Starodubtseva flipped the script in the second set and dominated the middle portion of the match. She would go up 3-0 to open the third set but started to slip late, with the No. 2 seed managing to claw back to level footing to force a final set tiebreak to 10 points. At that point the expectation was for Rybakina to settle in and restore order, but Starodubtseva had other ideas, pouncing on sloppy mistakes from Rybakina to pull off the biggest upset thus far at Roland-Garros.
For the match, Rybakina piled up 71 unforced errors to just 36 from the Ukrainian, which completely undid any advantage she picked up by hitting 23 winners to just 13 from Starodubtseva. She also struggled getting her first serve in, which created openings for Starodubtseva to attack and push the No. 2 onto her back foot. Starodubtseva played a controlled, smart match, seemingly recognizing her highly ranked opponent was not at her best. Typically a longer match favors the favorite, but in this case Starodubtseva was able to drag things out and demand a higher level of tennis than Rybakina was capable of producing on this day.
With Rybakina's loss, the bottom half of the women's draw opens considerably and No. 3 seed and four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek becomes an even bigger favorite to reach the finals. The top half of the women's draw remains star-studded, even with the first round loss by No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula, as last year's finals matchup of Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff could end up as the semifinal showdown.
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