Roland-Garros 2026: victorious at the Australian Open, world number 2 Elena Rybakina eliminated in the 2nd round

Already a huge sensation in the women’s table. World number 2 Elena Rybakina, who won her first Grand Slam title with the Australian Open at the start of the year, was eliminated in the second round at Roland-Garros, Wednesday May 27, after being beaten in three sets by the Ukrainian Yulia Starodubtseva (3-6, 6-1, 7-6 [10/4]). After winning the first round, the Kazakhstani let the next one slip away, before making a comeback at the end of the third round to finally lose clearly in the super tie-break, after 2h28 of fighting.

On a Suzanne-Lenglen court still bathed in sunshine for a long time, Rybakina seemed to suffer from the weather conditions. With twice as many unforced errors and half as many winning shots after the first set, she lost the flow of the match, only registering a small game in the second set. If she found some color in the third set, saving two break points at 3-1 to hang on a little longer in the game, and even being only one game away from victory (5-4 then 6-5), she ended up breaking down in the final super tie-break, totally dominated by her opponent.

Quarter-finalist in 2021 and 2024, qualified in the second week last year, Elena Rybakina was eliminated in the second round, her worst performance since her second participation in 2020. Yuliia Starodubtseva equals her best result on Parisian clay and joins her compatriots Oleksandra Oliynykova, Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk. She will face in the 3rd round the winner of the match between the American Hailey Baptiste (seeded n°26) and the Chinese Xiyu Wang.