Yuliia Starodubtseva

Yuliia Starodubtseva is the rare top-60 player who built her game in the NCAA, not the junior tour. In need of funding at 17, the Ukrainian chose the U.S. college route — four years and a masters in sport management at Old Dominion University, where she was a multi-time All-American, named 2022 Conference USA Player of the Year, and finished as one of the most decorated players in school history. She turned pro full-time only for the 2023 season. Fresh out of school, with her hometown of Kakhovka occupied by Russian troops and no way home, she settled in as a teaching pro on green clay in Westchester County, New York — a GoFundMe from friends and her UTR rating, not a federation, bankrolled the comeback.

The game is a baseliner's: she's recognized for court coverage and tactical intelligence, and at 5-foot-8 doesn't rely solely on power but on extending rallies behind a solid first-serve percentage. Against Elena Rybakina she counted on the opponent's miss — absorb, redirect, make her play one more ball.

The arc is one of the late-bloomer success stories of this era. In 2024 she became the first woman in the Open Era to qualify into the main draw of all four majors in a single calendar year. The 2026 breakthrough came in Charleston, where wins over McCartney Kessler and 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys carried her to a maiden WTA 500 final, losing to top seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula but climbing to a career-high No. 53 on April 6, 2026.

Then came Paris. At Roland-Garros, she upset No. 2 seed Rybakina in a third-set tiebreak for the biggest win of her career — having lost all six prior matches against top-10 opponents, before falling to Xinyu Wang. The added stakes are personal: if she cracks the top 50, her boyfriend and coach Pearse Dolan says he'll propose.