Paris ¨C Elena Rybakina was sent spinning out of the French ?Open after a 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4) loss to Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva in the second round on Wednesday, leaving the women¡¯s draw without one off the?genuine contenders for the title in Paris.
Russian-born Kazakh Rybakina arrived at Roland Garros as the second seed following her ?Australian Open victory in January and earned her tour-leading 31st match victory ?after dismantling ?Veronika Erjavec in the opening round.
The 26-year-old was unable to ?conjure up her best form on Court Suzanne Lenglen, however, as she wilted in the deciding set tiebreak and handed the victory to her opponent with a ?forehand that went long.
¡°Honestly it¡¯s hard to describe, I¡¯m super happy,¡± Starodubtseva said as she soaked ?up the cheers from the crowd.
¡°Elena is one of the top players. She¡¯s had an incredible year. I¡¯m super proud of myself that ?I was able to do this. ?It was a hard third set, but I got it done.¡±
It was world No. 55 Starodubtseva¡¯s first top-five win.
Rybakina, a two-time Grand Slam champion, did not help her own ?cause, ?committing 71 unforced errors in a match that featured 107 in total, but she began to mount a spirited comeback toward?the end.
¡°I expected her to come back,¡± said Starodubtseva, who was previously 0-6 in matches against top-10 ?opponents.
¡°You can¡¯t be thinking it¡¯s ever going to be easy, even at 3-0 up (in the decider), I had a feeling it wasn¡¯t going to be easy. Tough match, but happy to be the winner today.¡±
Rybakina, who lifted a clay-court?title indoors in Stuttgart ?in ?the buildup to Roland Garros, was left to rue the ?errors that ultimately proved costly.
¡°It¡¯s just a pity, because I think I was practicing ?well before the French Open, and I was feeling good,¡± she said.
¡°I thought that I can raise the level, but actually today it was a very bad performance, too many unforced errors, and yeah, I didn¡¯t feel the ?greatest. I was trying to find a way, but it clearly didn¡¯t work.
¡°I won¡¯t say that physically I felt really bad. There have been matches when I felt worse. Definitely, the energy wasn¡¯t there. I just couldn¡¯t find the right balance on the ball.¡±
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