![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/732b403d-182a-4c2e-a158-3e760417658d-AFP__20260906__2293729586__v1__HighRes__2026UsOpenDay7.webp\"\/)
Kazakhstan\u2019s Elena Rybakina in action during her women\u2019s singles third round match of the US Open. (Getty Images\/AFP pic)
\nNEW YORK: World number two Elena Rybakina avenged her French Open defeat to Yuliia Starodubtseva on Saturday, beating the unseeded Ukrainian 7-6 (8\/6), 6-3 to reach the US Open last 16.<\/p>\n
The hard-hitting Kazakh, who claimed her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, fell to Starodubtseva in the second round at Roland Garros, a defeat that may have been on her mind as she struggled to find her rhythm in the opening set.<\/p>\n
Starodubtseva took full advantage of Rybakina\u2019s struggles with her forehand and broke for a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n
But Rybakina steadied, breaking back with an angled drop shot to level the set.<\/p>\n
She saved a set point in the tiebreaker with one of her 12 aces, and with the first set in hand attacked in the second with confidence.<\/p>\n
A double fault from Starodubtseva handed Rybakina a break to open the second and Rybakina maintained the edge to finish the job in just under two hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a tough match,\u201d Rybakina said. \u201cI feel like it wasn\u2019t my best performance, but Yuliia she\u2019s a great player. Last time we had a battle, too, and I\u2019m glad I could win in straight sets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rybakina now just needs two wins \u2014 to reach the semi-finals \u2014 to be assured of supplanting Aryna Sabalenka atop the world rankings \u2014 even if Sabalenka wins a third straight US Open title.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot there yet,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s still very far. I need to focus on my next match and not think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That next match will be against four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who beat Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazakhstan\u2019s Elena Rybakina in action during her women\u2019s singles third round match of the US Open. (Getty Images\/AFP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[246,207,220,463,3154],"class_list":["post-66788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-french-open","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-french-open","tag-roland-garros","tag-us-open","tag-yuliia-starodubtseva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}