MADRID — Yuliia Starodubtseva had a surprising run to the quarterfinals at the China Open last fall. After navigating qualification, she secured four consecutive victories, all in straight sets, including a win over the No. 14-ranked player in the Round of 16 in Beijing. This marked her best professional tournament result to date, propelling her into the Top 100, before she was defeated by Coco Gauff.
What followed was a difficult period, a main-draw victory drought on the Hologic WTA Tour that lasted seven months – 203 days. The dynamic 25-year-old Ukrainian athlete participated in 15 professional events across four continents and 10 different countries during this time, failing to qualify eight times and not securing a win in the main draw in the seven instances she did qualify.
Here at the Mutua Madrid Open, her fortunes changed. She won two qualifying matches and then achieved a breakthrough with a dominant 6-2, 6-2 first-round win against wild card Linda Fruhvirtova. She then defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto with scores of 7-6 (5), 6-4, advancing to the third round.
Trailing by a set and a break, she mounted a comeback to overcome the No. 18 seed Liudmila Samsonova with scores of 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0. Her opponent in Monday’s Round of 16 is the formidable No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva, who has already claimed two WTA 1000 titles this year.
For several years, Starodubtseva`s ranking has hovered around No. 100, which typically ensures direct entry into the main draws of Grand Slam tournaments. She entered Madrid ranked No. 99 and is now guaranteed to rise to at least No. 80, just one spot below her career-high ranking.
More than her ranking, Starodubtseva embodies resilience. Last year, she became the only player in the Open era to successfully qualify for all four Grand Slam tournaments in a single calendar year. She also secured her first main draw win at Wimbledon.
While Starodubtseva is arguably the most unexpected player in the Round of 16 lineup for Monday and Tuesday, she is joined by four of the top five seeds: No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2 Iga Swiatek, No. 4 Coco Gauff, and No. 5 Madison Keys.
As a service to the tennis community, we offer another edition of Courtside Changeover — a mid-tournament reset for the Mutua Madrid Open to reflect on a week filled with surprises and to look ahead at potential future developments.
Swiatek-Eala II doesn’t disappoint
The significant upset at the Miami Open saw Alexandra Eala defeat the No. 2-ranked Iga Swiatek in straight sets in the quarterfinals. Just one month later, they faced each other again, this time on red clay, which is Swiatek’s preferred surface.
The 19-year-old player from the Philippines initially took a set and a break lead, only to lose 10 of the subsequent 13 games.
“Things to take back and to learn,” Eala remarked afterwards.
Match of the tournament (so far)
Despite being down 4-1 in the third set and suffering a nasty fall, Belinda Bencic demonstrated incredible grit to defeat the No. 16 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia with scores of 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (2) in a thrilling third-round match on Saturday.
Unseeded and making a comeback after maternity leave, Bencic battled for 3 hours and 3 minutes in this memorable encounter.
Comeback V.2
This is precisely why tennis captivates us:
Anastasija Sevastova entered the tournament unranked and, defying her 0-8 head-to-head record against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, defeated her in the first round in straight sets. Sevastova gave birth to her daughter Alexandra in December 2022 and returned to the tour after a 22-month absence, only to unfortunately tear her ACL in her fourth event back in Austin last year.
Following rehabilitation and another 13-month break from the tour, the 35-year-old Latvian played two matches at a W75 event in Koper, Slovenia before arriving in Madrid. After her stunning win over Pavlyuchenkova, an even greater surprise was in store…
… Peak Penko
Jelena Ostapenko is consistently one of the most unpredictable and exciting players on the tour. The week prior, she achieved arguably her best career result by defeating the No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Iga Swiatek en route to winning the title in Stuttgart.
However, in Madrid, the No. 23 seed unexpectedly fell in her opening match to the unranked Sevastova with scores of 7-6 (2), 6-2, leading to…
… Order restored
The feel-good story of Sevastova`s impressive run understandably came to an end in the third round, where she was defeated by the No. 13 seed Diana Shnaider 6-0, 6-0 in just 44 minutes.
Upset(s) Special
While there were several notable upsets, including Peyton Stearns` three-set victory over the No. 15 seed Amanda Anisimova, Anastasia Potapova delivered arguably the most significant surprise. She eliminated the No. 8 seed Zheng Qinwen with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in their second-round match.
It`s worth noting that after Zheng`s last clay court match at Roland Garros, she was awarded the Olympic gold medal for singles.
Heading into the second week of the tournament, all of the Top 7 seeds were still in contention. Then, quite suddenly, two of them were eliminated. No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 6 Jasmine Paolini exited the tournament thanks to victories by Moyuka Uchijima and Maria Sakkari, respectively. Uchijima`s win marked her first career victory against a Top 25 player, while Sakkari`s triumph ended her streak of eight consecutive losses against Top 10 opponents.
Jasper Hawthorne 
Dominic Ashworth