A Russian woman with no bearings on Parisian soil

This first-round match pits two players whose 2026 trajectories couldn’t be more different, and the surface changes everything.

Anna Blinkova arrives at Porte d’Auteuil in worrying form. Seven wins and 14 losses this season, a catastrophic WTA clay record of 2–6, and no main-draw WTA appearance on clay since the start of the European swing, having been knocked out in Rome qualifying by Sherif with a harsh 1–6 2–6 scoreline. Her two career titles are on hard courts, as are her four Challenger/ITF titles. On clay at WTA level, she has a 20–34 career record and just 2–5 over the last 52 weeks. Her 3.67 double faults per match in 2026 illustrate a player who falls apart as soon as the ball slows down. Yet she does have two bright spots here: a third round in 2019 and another in 2023, where she had overturned Caroline Garcia before falling to Svitolina. Exceptions that prove the rule.

Yuliia Starodubtseva offers the opposite profile. Coached by Pearse Dolan, the 26-year-old Ukrainian is 11–6 on clay in 2026 and 9–5 over the last 52 weeks at WTA level, a 64% success rate. Her final in Charleston, where she took out Keys, along with her runs in Rome and Rabat, sketch the portrait of a player who knows how to construct points on this surface. In Rabat last week, she was leading 5–0 in the second set against Kalinina before collapsing in the tie-break. Her 12–8 record in main-draw WTA matches on clay confirms a genuine ease. At Roland-Garros in 2025, she reached the third round as a qualifier. Their only previous meeting came at the 2025 US Open on hard, a 6–3 6–1 win for Blinkova, which has no predictive value here. The forecast calls for a sunny Sunday at 33°C with zero precipitation: in hot, dry conditions, the Wilson ball will bite more into the court and favor extended rallies where Starodubtseva excels.