“I feel like I changed up a bit my play style and kind of like realized what type of player I actually am, and I think I’ll try and build from there on,” she said.
“I definitely played more aggressive tennis last two weeks, and I think it’s in my nature, and maybe I haven’t been letting myself do it in previous weeks, maybe tried to do more other stuff rather than just keeping it simple and be aggressive in certain moments. And I think this was like the biggest lesson in the last two weeks that I had.”
The 26-year-old is tentatively planning to return to action at the Mutua Madrid Open, previously the site of her biggest career breakthrough; just over a year ago, she reached the fourth round as a qualifier. Between Madrid and Charleston, Starodubtseva is sensing a pattern.
“I feel like maybe my favorite surface is becoming like fast clay, and Madrid is that,” she told me. “Roland-Garros is that. I did good there as well.
“Here is like the clay is a bit faster. I feel like I did good here as well. So, I’m kind of excited for that tournament, and I know I have to maybe defend a lot of points there, but I feel like I have no pressure here. Just going to try and do my best there.”
“I think [clay] really suits her game,” agreed Pegula. “She’s really tricky. I think maybe she wasn’t playing her best. I think I was playing at a really high level. But then you could see at the end there that, like, she didn’t miss a ball for like two games, and I was like, ‘Oh, she’s going after it right now.’ And I think that’s probably what caused everyone a lot of issues earlier in the week in her earlier rounds here.
Starodubtseva is projected to rise over 35 spots in the rankings, just outside the Top 50.
