French Open: No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina knocked out in second round by Yuliia Starodubtseva

REUTERS / REUTERS

Unseeded Yuliia Starodubtseva knocked out No. 2 seeded Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10-4) during Thursday’s Roland-Garros action.

This is the first time that Rybakina, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, has failed to reach the third round at Roland-Garros since 2020.As a Lucky Loser last year, she fell to Jasmine Paolini in straight sets.

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This is the earliest a No. 2 seed has lost at Roland-Garros since Barbora Krejčíková failed to defend her title after going out in the first round in 2022.

Rybakin fell behind and eventually lost due to the large number of errors. She recorded 71 unforced errors in the match

Starodubtseva will face either No. 26 seed Hailey Baptiste or qualifier Xiy Wang of China.