Shock as second seed Elena Rybakina gets knocked out of French Open
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Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina suffered a shock early exit in the French Open second round after losing to unseeded Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina suffered a shock early exit in the French Open second round on May 27 at the hands of unseeded Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva.
After earning a WTA Tour-leading 31st match victory of 2026 by dismantling Veronika Erjavec in the opening round, the Kazakh world No. 2 blew a one-set lead in dramatic fashion, slumping to a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4) loss.
World No. 55 Starodubtseva, who defeated a top-10 opponent for the first time in her career, said: “Honestly, hard to describe, I’m super happy.
“I’m super proud of myself that I was able to do this today. It was a tricky third set but I got it done in the end.”
It is Rybakina’s earliest exit from any WTA tournament since the 2025 Miami Open and first defeat in the opening two rounds of a Major since the 2024 Australian Open.
Starodubtseva will face either in-form American 26th seed Hailey Baptiste or China’s Wang Xiyu for a place in the last 16.
The 26-year-old has already matched her previous best run at a Grand Slam event, when she lost to Jasmine Paolini in the French Open third round as a lucky loser 12 months ago.
Ukraine's Yuliia Starodubtseva celebrates winning her second-round match against Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina at the French Open on May 27.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek is reaping the benefits of teaming up with Rafael Nadal’s former coach, as she navigated her way into the third round with a 6-2, 6-3 success over world No. 35 Sara Bejlek.
The four-time Roland Garros champion is seeking to reclaim the title she won three times consecutively between 2022 and 2024, before losing out at the semi-final stage to top seed Aryna Sabalenka last season.
Swiatek, 24, has recently teamed up with Francisco Roig – who guided Nadal to all 22 Grand Slams including his 14 Roland Garros titles – and has been preparing for the clay-court Slam at the Spanish great’s tennis academy in Mallorca.
“I spent a week in Mallorca, which is amazing, because starting the clay-court season there gave me a lot of energy and motivation,” Swiatek said on court.
“We speak the same language and he asks me how I want to play. For sure we practise a little bit differently and I needed to adjust to that but, week by week, I can take more and more from Francis, that’s for sure.”
After a comfortable opening win in Paris against Australian wild card Emerson Jones, the Pole faced a tougher challenge in the round of 64 against Abu Dhabi winner Bejlek, 20.
“She has a tricky style of game... she mixes up the rhythm quite well,” Swiatek added of her opponent, whom she was playing for the first time.
With a slight blustering wind creeping across centre court, which the sun-drenched spectators doubtless appreciated, both players struggled on serve initially with three consecutive breaks in the early exchanges.
Swiatek then looked to have firmly gained the upper hand from the baseline but Bejlek battled to stay with the former world No. 1 and saved a set point to break back to 5-2 – Swiatek finishing that game with back-to-back double faults.
But the diminutive Czech’s own service problems came back to bite her as Swiatek broke for the fourth time to claim the opener.
Swiatek held serve to claim a mammoth opening game in the second frame as both women found their range with their groundstrokes.
Iga Swiatek of Poland (right) and Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic after the match.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But Swiatek proved the more powerful of the two as she broke in the next game before moving through the rest of the set to book her last-32 berth, despite dropping serve two times.
There she will meet compatriot Magda Linette, who overcame former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.
Also progressing is seventh seed Elina Svitolina, who had defeated Swiatek en route to the Rome title earlier in May.
The Ukrainian beat Spain’s Kaitlin Quevedo 6-0, 6-4 and will meet Tamara Korpatsch of Germany next.
Korpatsch made a Major third round for the first time at the age of 31 by overcoming Chinese 32nd seed Wang Xinyu 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
Earlier, former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic became the first women’s player to reach the third round after the Swiss beat American Caty McNally 6-4, 6-0.
Bencic is competing in the French Open after a gap of two years, having missed the 2024 edition after giving birth to her daughter Bella and the 2025 edition with an arm injury.
With her comfortable victory, the 29-year-old reached the third round in Paris for the first time since 2022. AFP, REUTERS