Staro doit confirmer Charleston !

Yuliia Starodubtseva is one of the most unusual stories on tour. A graduate of Old Dominion University in the United States, she spent a year coaching on the synthetic grass courts of Westchester Country Club before relaunching her professional career. This 2026 season is finally establishing her as a player capable of performing at WTA level on clay: semifinal in Charleston, final in Bogota, a WTA clay record of 8–3 over 52 weeks, i.e. 72.7%. Her 2026 clay stats confirm this solidity: 73.3% of service games won, 56.4% of points won on second serve, 59.3% of break points converted. She holds serve better than anyone in this match and knows how to create chances from the baseline.

On the other side of the net, Simona Waltert comes in with a strong 2026 season at 8–4 and a clay Match Efficiency of 2.273, better than her opponent’s. The 25-year-old Swiss is a true clay-courter at Challenger level, 31–10 over 52 weeks, with a varied baseline game and an excellent first-serve return rate at 47.1%. But at WTA level on clay her sample size is still limited, 3–2, and against top-100 players she stands at 38.5% over 52 weeks. Starodubtseva is in the top 60 and is exactly the type of opponent against whom Waltert has not yet proven she can be consistently effective at main-tour level.