Rybakina to Beat Yuliia Starodubtseva in French Open Day 4

Elena Rybakina is projected to beat yuliia starodubtseva in their French Open second-round match after both players opened with straight-set wins and each lost four games. Starodubtseva is defending third-round points, while Rybakina arrives as the player expected to control points with her serve and reach the third round.

Rybakina’s Serve Edge

Rybakina came through the opening round comfortably in straight sets, and that same clean start is the biggest reason she is favored again on French Open day four. She is expected to keep points short and force Starodubtseva to play from behind in rallies.

Both players lost four games in their openers, but the difference in the preview was form at the top of the draw. Rybakina was described as arguably the best player of 2026, a level that makes a second-round upset harder to justify on paper.

Starodubtseva’s Charleston Run

Starodubtseva reached the Charleston final at the start of the clay season, a run that raised her profile before Roland Garros began. Since then, though, she had not shown that she could compete with the very best of the WTA Tour.

That is the friction point in this matchup. She arrives with third-round points to defend, but the preview leaned heavily toward Rybakina because recent evidence on clay has favored the higher-level baseline and serving game on the other side of the net.

French Open Day 4

The prediction was straightforward: Rybakina should reach the third round. For readers following the women’s draw, the practical takeaway is that Starodubtseva’s path now runs through a player viewed at the time of the preview as the very best, and the match was framed around whether she could turn that Charleston form into another deep Roland Garros run.