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Wednesday, May 27, 2026

RG.4- Down and Out in Paris (so, see ya soon, London)










=DAY 4 NOTES=
...aside from all the "extracurricular activity," 2026 has been a very good year for the Ukrainian women. Despite being lesser in numbers than many top tennis nations, the country is at or near the top of nearly every noteworthy collective and/or individual statistical measure of success this season.

There have been more Ukrainian women in tour singles finals (9) than from any other nation, while their four titles are tied for the most (w/ the U.S.). The five different women who've reached those finals are tied with the five different U.S. women who've done it for the most on tour this year, while the fourteen Ukrainian semifinal berths in '26 are second behind only the U.S.'s twenty. Both of this spring's 1000 event clay singles champions hail from Ukraine, with Marta Kostyuk taking Madrid and Elina Svitolina winning in Rome, and earlier this season we saw the WTA's first all-UKR singles final in Rouen, when Kostyuk faced off with Veronika Podrez (after a 125 final between the nation's Anhelina Kalinina and Oleksandra Oliynykova had previously this season been the biggest such all-UKR match-up ever). Svitolina and Kostyuk have both won two tour titles, behind only Aryna Sabalenka's three crowns.

Meanwhile, Svitolina's six SF lead the tour (by two). She's also tied (w/ Elena Rybakina, with 7) for the most Top 10 wins in 2026, with Kostyuk tied (w/ 3 others) for the next most with five. The group has combined for six Top 10 wins on clay this spring, tied with the U.S. for the most by any nation.

Five Ukrainian women reached the 2nd Round at this RG, with four of them in action on Day 4.

While Daria Snigur, who'd knocked off the first seed (Clara Tauson) at this RG, was eliminated by Peyton Stearns today, the two highest-ranked women were not, remaining on course for a possible QF match-up down the road.



Kostyuk had to rally from a set down against Katie Volynets, dropping a 1st set TB before winning 6-7(4)/6-3/6-3 to notch her tour-best 14th straight victory on the dirt this spring; while Svitolina ousted Spaniard Kaitlin Quevedo love & 4 to join Kostyuk in the 3rd Round, something the veteran five-time RG quarterfinalist (w/ her first in 2015) has done in her last eleven MD appearances in Paris. For Kostyuk, it's her first RG 3rd Round since her Round of 16 finish in 2021.

But the biggest thump of the day came by the hand of yet another Ukrainian, as Yuliia Starodubtseva felled the tallest tree in the RG forest of seeds to go down so far at this major, upsetting #2 Elena Rybakina in a three-set battle in which she rallied from an early deficit and then held on late as the reigning AO champ threatened to find an escape hatch leading out of the 2nd Round and onto the next.

The 26-year old Old Dominion University (in Virginia) product has been a part of the MD at the last ten majors, reaching the 3rd Round in Paris a year ago. Earlier this spring, she reached her first tour-level final in Charleston, a loss to Jessie Pegula.

Today, after Rybakina won a 6-3 1st, Starodubtseva, took control in the 2nd set, winning it 6-1 and racing to a double-break lead at 3-0 in the decider. Then things got a bit trickier.

Starodubtseva gave one of the breaks back, but held BPs for 4-1 on Rybakina's serve to get it back. The Kazakh held for 3-2, then saw a BP of her own a game later to get back to even. Starodubtseva denied her and got the hold for 4-2, but the Rybakina surge was on. She broke to tie the score at 4-4.

But it was then that Starodubtseva held firm. After losing serve in game 8, the Ukrainian lost just one combined *point* in her last two service games in the set, forcing a match tie-break for the 3rd Round.

Things were tied up there at 2-2, but it was the errors (mostly on her forehand side) of Rybakina that ultimately closed the door on the Kazakh in the match, opening it wide for the Ukrainian, who soon led 6-2. Starodubtseva reached *sextuple* MP at 9-3, and on her second opportunity saw Rybakina throw in one final forehand error to end the 10-4 MTB. Starodubtseva won 3-6/6-1/7-6(10-4), posting her first career Top 10 win.



After getting off to a great start to the clay season with a title run in Stuttgart early in the spring, Rybakina couldn't replicate the result once things moved outdoors. Losses to Anastasia Potapova (Madrid 4r) and Svitolina (Rome QF) preceded this disappointing finish, once again pushing back Rybakina's chances to potentially contend for the #1 ranking. Aryna Sabalenka will *at least* stay around 600 points up on her closest competitor in the rankings.

Rybakina's 2nd Round exit makes this the earliest the reigning AO champ has lost in Paris since Naomi Osaka went out in the 2nd Round in 2021. She's the eighth woman's AO champ in the Open era to lose in the 1r/2r at RG.

Next stop: the grass courts of London.

The last remaining Ukrainian to play her 2nd Round match will be Oliynykova, who'll face Pegula-conqueror Kimberly Birrell tomorrow. Birrell is Australian, so Oliynykova will have to win and hope #25 Diana Shnaider does the same in order for her to return to "her element" once again where she'll be able to disparage her opponent both before and immediately after the match, then accuse her of war crimes (or complicity in them) when she's in front of cameras (or alone w/ her phone) well afterward. As is her wont.

BTW, Oliynykova was at it again yesterday after her 1st Round win, declaring that fellow competitors must either comment loudly enough to risk their and their family's lives and/or uproot their existence or else be declared to be responsible for the many deaths in a war they didn't start and can't stop because, well, because she says so. Oh, and she's also back to insufferably stating that those players shouldn't be able to have a tennis career, either. I won't link to or post everything that she said, but you can easily search and find it if you wish.

I must say, though, it's hard to imagine any similar situations -- say, be it race-based or focused on a particular religion, or centered on conflicts/incidents in which either or both of those issues are crucial -- in which a player could do this sort of thing and not face any sort of public or official condemnation from either the tour or other athletes. Yet, here we are. I guess it'll take something really bad happening to a player during a match or on a tournament's grounds (or after they leave them), orchestrated by a "fan" or political actor with similar sentiments that could be traced back to any of the inciting comments and accusations made by Oliynykova, for *someone* with some pull to decide to do anything about it. Of course, by then it'd already be too late.

Personally, I'm still amazed by the incredible restraint shown by the Russian and Belarusian players, and those of other nationalities, who've been targeted in this way for now going on multiple years for something they have no control over, and very little wiggle room when it comes to the things they *can* do. I guess that some haven't lashed out in response to this sort of thing shows how much better *they* understand the situation than those who very loudly declare that *their* way is the *only acceptable* way.

...anyway. Next up, in Iga News...



#3 seed Swiatek's early-round slam prowess continued unsurprisingly today with a 6-2/6-3 win over Sara Bejlek that improved the four-time champion's career RG mark to 42-3, tying Chris Evert for the best start in a woman's first 45 matches in Paris in the Open era.

The *bigger* news concerned her 3rd Round opponent, or more specifically who that person *won't* be.

As (someone) predicted, the potential first RG meeting between Swiatek and #29 Alona Ostapenko will *not* happen, as the '17 champion -- with a 6-0 career mark vs. Swiatek -- fell today to a different Pole, Magda Linette, by a 6-2/2-6/6-2 score.



One would think this development is a good one for Swiatek, and it just might be. But let's not forget that it was countrywoman Linette who ended Swiatek's long streak of opening round matches back in March with a three-set 2nd Round upset in Miami. The two are tied 1-1 on hard court, but have not yet played on clay.

...all right, controversy in 3-2-1... bam.

And, no, it didn't include the aforementioned Ostapenko. It involved Tamara Korpatsch, no stranger to being angered by opponets (or doubles partners) who don't meet a certain standard (hers), and #32 seed Wang Xinyu, (I don't believe) with no real history of skirting rules and/or angering anyone.

Korpatsch's ultimate three-set victory didn't include a post-match handshake -- though their hands were tantalizingly close, maybe out of habit -- because the German was still angry about her Chinese opponent crossing over onto her side of the court to look at and argue a line call (Wang received an unsportsmanlike penalty), with the monent having a *bit* of a shade of the time when Martina Hingis (also at RG) did the same thing quite a while ago.



Well, at least Korpatsch, right or wrong, had a specific, (legitimately) personal (game-related) reason for not wanting to offer Wang the simple competitive courtesy of a handshake. So there's that.

...meanwhile, after saving three MP in the 1st Round vs. Barbora Krejcikova, it was ironically #26-seeded Hailey Baptiste who left this RG today with an injury, retiring down 5-4 in the 1st to qualifier Wang Xiyu (who improves to 26-2 on the year) after falling and crumpling over in pain with a leg injury in the back of the court.

It's Wang's second career slam 3rd Round result (w/ '22 US).



Hopefully Baptiste will be ready to return soon, especially with the North American summer ard court season not that far away.

...well, #13 Jasmine Paolini got a brief reprieve from her '26 match-winning difficulties. But, well, it was *only* brief.



The '24 finalist led Solana Sierra 6-4/4-2 today, but couldn't hold back the Argentine, who came on strong to win six straight games, taking the 2nd set 6-4 and going up 2-0 in the 3rd. Paolini made a stand right then and there, forging six BP opporturtunities in game 3 before Sierra held for a 3-0 edge. Still, the Italian got things back on serve with a break two games later, pulling to within 3-2, only to give the break lead back to Sierra in the following game.

Serving up 5-3, 40/love, Sierra completed the upset on her third MP, reaching the 3rd Round for the first time in Paris with a 4-6/6-4/6-3 victory. Last summer, she reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon as a lucky loser, but before this RG she'd been a combined 0-4 in her outings at the other three slams.

Sierra posted her first 1000 4th Round result earlier this spring in Madrid, then followed up with a 3rd Round in Rome. Today's win lifts the '22 RG junior finalist over .500 for the season (16-15) and improves her current clay court run to 9-3 since she opened her dirt season with a 1st Round exit in Charleston (which turned out to be the close of what had been an early-season 1-7 slide for the 21-year old).








...27 YEARS AGO... ON DAY 4:

...there was so much more than just Hingis crossing the net to argue a line call.




After that final, Hingis never won another slam singles crown (she'd won five coming into the '99 RG final, including three straight AO), going 0-5 in the last five major singles finals of her career before her *first* retirement in 2002 (which was followed by another in 2007, then another in 2017).

Of course, Hingis ultimately put together a doubles career that was *also* Hall of Famer worthy all on its own even if she'd never played singles. She was enshrined in Newport in 2013.


...ALL HAIL THE QUEEN BEE (coincidentally with the initials "B.B."?)... ON DAY 4:



































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*WORST RG RESULTS BY AO CHAMP IN OPEN ERA*
=1st Round=
1978 Chris O'Neil
1979 Barbara Jordan
2000 Lindsay Davenport
2014 Li Na
2016 Angelique Kerber
=2nd Round=
1987 Hana Mandlikova
2004 Justine Henin
2011 Kim Clijsters
2021 Naomi Osaka
2026 Elena Rybakina

*RECENT RG "CRASH-AND-BURN"*
2018 Alona Ostapenko, LAT (1st Rd., earliest RG DC since '05)
2019 Alona Ostapenko, LAT (1st Rd.; zero RG wins before/after '17 title)
2020 U.S. Open '20 SF (Osaka DNP, Brady 1r, Serena w/d 2r, Azarenka 2r - in 24 hrs)
2021 Ash Barty, AUS and Naomi Osaka, JPN (#1 seed ret. 2r; #2 seed w/d 2r)
2022 Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (1st/DC) and Ons Jabuer, TUN (hottest non-Iga on clay)
2023 Barbora Krejcikova, CZE (0-2 at RG since winning '21 title)
2024 Maria Sakkari, GRE (1st Rd. in 4 of 5 slams)
2025 Emma Navarro, USA (1st Rd.; #9 wins just 1 game vs. Bouzas Maneiro)
2026 #5 Jessie Pegula/USA (1st Rd.) and #2 Elena Rybakina (2nd)

*SWIATEK - RG CAREER HEAD-to-HEAD (42-3)*
3-0 - Coco Gauff, USA
2-0 - Lesia Tsurenko, UKR
2-0 - Marketa Vondrousova, CZE
1-0 - Sara Bejlek, CZE
1-0 - Genie Bouchard, CAN
1-0 - Marie Bouzkova, CZE
1-0 - Cristina Bucsa, ESP
1-0 - Jaqueline Cristian, ROU
1-0 - Beatriz Haddad Maia, BRA
1-0 - Hsieh Su-wei, TPE
1-0 - Selena Janicijevic, FRA
1-0 - Leolia Jeanjean, FRA
1-0 - Emerson Jones, AUS
1-0 - Kaja Juvan, SLO
1-0 - Dasha Kasatkina, RUS
1-0 - Sofia Kenin, USA
1-0 - Anett Kontaveit, EST
1-0 - Marta Kostyuk, UKR
1-0 - Danka Kovinic, MNE
1-0 - Claire Liu, USA
1-0 - Karolina Muchova, CZE
1-0 - Naomi Osaka, JPN
1-0 - Jasmine Paolini, ITA
1-0 - Jessie Pegula, USA
1-0 - Rebecca Peterson, SWE
1-0 - Nadia Podoroska, ARG
1-0 - Anastasia Potapova, RUS
1-0 - Monica Puig, PUR
1-0 - Emma Raducanu, GBR
1-0 - Alison Riske-Amritraj, USA
1-0 - Elena Rybakina, KAZ
1-0 - Rebecca Sramkova, SVK
1-0 - Elina Svitolina, UKR
1-0 - Martina Trevisan, ITA
1-0 - Wang Qinwen, CHN
1-0 - Wang Xinyu, CHN
1-0 - Zheng Qinwen, CHN
1-1 - Simona Halep, ROU
0-1 - Aryna Sabalenka, BLR
0-1 - Maria Sakkari, GRE
--
7-0 - USA
5-0 - CZE
4-0 - UKR
3-0 - CHN
2-0 - FRA
2-0 - ITA
2-0 - RUS
1-0 - ARG
1-0 - AUS
1-0 - BRA
1-0 - CAN
1-0 - ESP
1-0 - EST
1-0 - GBR
1-0 - JPN
1-0 - KAZ
1-0 - MNE
1-0 - PUR
1-0 - SLO
1-0 - SVK
1-0 - SWE
1-0 - TPE
2-1 - ROU
0-1 - BLR
0-1 - GRE

*LONG WTA (MD+BJK only) WINNING STREAKS - 2020s*
37 - Iga Swiatek (2022)
21 - Iga Swiatek (2024)
18 - Iga Swiatek (2023-24)
17 - Simona Halep (2020)
16 - Coco Gauff (2023)
16 - Madison Keys (2025)
15 - Danielle Collins (2024)
15 - Aryna Sabalenka (2024)
15 - Aryna Sabalenka (2026) 14 - MARTA KOSTYUK (2026, through 2nd Rd.)





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Saw someone say the world is a boring place because there are no elves or dragons, so I'm legally obliged to share this:

[image or embed]

— Boze the Library Owl (@sketchesbyboze.bsky.social) March 17, 2026 at 7:24 PM


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They stole the internet’s knowledge and all the work that went into it and they want to sell it back to us for a fee. What a business model.

[image or embed]

— Denny Carter (@dennycarter.bsky.social) May 26, 2026 at 3:45 PM











TOP QUALIFIER: Claire Liu/USA
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): x
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): x
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q1: Oceane Dodin/FRA (PR) def. Kayla Day/USA 6-4/2-6/7-6(15-13) - saved 2 MP in TB, wins on MP #5
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): x
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.-WC): x
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: #27 Marie Bouzkova/CZE (def. Bronzetti/ITA)
FIRST SEED OUT: #21 Clara Tauson/DEN (1r - lost to Snigur/UKR)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Susan Bandecchi/SUI (1st MD), Marina Bassols Ribera/ESP (2nd MD), Francesca Jones/GBR (7th MD), Oleksandra Oliynykova/UKR (2nd MD), Kaitlin Quevedo/ESP (1st MD), Antonia Ruzic/CRO (3rd MD)
UPSET QUEENS: Switzerland
REVELATION LADIES: Poland (4-0 1st Rd. in consecutive '26 majors)
NATION OF POOR SOULS: FRA (none of 14 in Q-draw reach MD; wild cards go 0-6 year after WC Boisson to SF; 2-7 1st Rd.; Boisson out 1r)
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: in 2r: Susan Bandecchi/SUI, Marina Bassols Ribera/ESP(L), Maja Chwalinska/POL, Alina Korneeva/RUS, Claire Liu/USA, Kaitlin Quevedo/ESP(L), Mayar Sherif/EGY, Wang Xiyu/CHN(W)
LUCKY LOSER WINS: --
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: 0-8 in 1st Rd. (including 0-5 FRA)
PROTECTED RANKING WINS: Jil Teichmann/SUI (in 3r)
LAST PASTRY STANDING: in 2r: Elsa Jacquemot, Diane Parry
Ms./Mademoiselle OPPORTUNITY: x
IT "??": x
COMEBACK: x
CRASH & BURN: #5 Jessie Pegula/USA (1r- lost to #83 Birrell, who'd lost 9 con. slam 1r matches and 3-13 career; Pegula led by 6-1/2-1 w/ break; second 1r loss in major since RG20) and #2 Elena Rybakina/KAZ (AO champ out 2r in 3rd set TB to #55 Starodubtseva)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF PARIS: Nominees: Svitolina (1r- trailed Bondar 3-1 in 3rd; avoided first 1r RG loss in 13 app.); Sierra (2r- trailed Paolini 6-4/4-2)
DOUBLES STAR: x
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): x
Mademoiselle/Madame OF THE EVENING: --
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: x
Legion de Lenglen: 100th anniversary of Suzanne Lenglen's last "grand slam" titles (RG WS/WD/MX sweep) in 1926 (she'd retire after controversial Wimbledon withdrawal and join professional tour that summer)
Coupe LA PETIT TAUREAU: (award given on Henin's birthday, June 1)








All for Day 4. More tomorrow.
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