PARIS, May 15, 2026, 11:02 CEST
- Katie Volynets managed just 14 minutes on the Paris clay before her quarterfinal with seventh seed Yuliia Starodubtseva was halted.
- Up next: Alina Charaeva faces Aliaksandra Sasnovich for a shot at the semifinals in another quarterfinal matchup.
- Madison Keys holds on as the top seed, even with a number of other seeds already knocked out of the draw.
Katie Volynets and seventh seed Yuliia Starodubtseva barely got their Trophée Clarins quarterfinal started on Friday before play was suspended in the early stages of the first set. The Paris WTA 125 draw remains paused, waiting for Alina Charaeva and Aliaksandra Sasnovich to take Court Central. After just 14 minutes, the WTA marked the Volynets-Starodubtseva contest as suspended, with the tournament stuck in the quarterfinal round.
The interruption is significant: the Paris clay stop lands right before Roland Garros and a handful of matchups haven’t been sorted for the weekend. While a WTA 125 falls below the top-tier women’s events, these matches still offer ranking points—and a valuable opportunity for players to log clay-court time ahead of the main French circuit’s climax in Paris.
Volynets advanced to the quarterfinals after dispatching fourth seed Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-2. Starodubtseva, for her part, handled Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-1, according to the official WTA draw. With Navarro, Leylah Fernandez, Katie Boulter, Sara Bejlek, and McCartney Kessler all out, Starodubtseva stands as one of the last remaining seeds.
Friday’s match marked just the second career clash between Volynets and Starodubtseva. According to Sportskeeda, Starodubtseva held a 1-0 edge in their head-to-head, having beaten Volynets in three sets during the 2024 Italian Open qualifiers.
Before play halted, odds had tipped in Starodubtseva’s favor: BetMGM put the Ukrainian at -145, Volynets at +110, according to Sportskeeda. FanDuel also showed the matchup on its Paris slate, but the main sportsbook listing hid the full odds behind JavaScript—so full market specifics weren’t visible in plain text.
Up next from the user card: Charaeva faces Sasnovich. 365Scores has it on Court Central, putting Sasnovich at 1.72 and Charaeva at 2.00. That’s a slim edge for Sasnovich, per the odds.
Charaeva’s got recent results to point to. According to MyKhel’s match page, she took down Sasnovich 6-3, 6-4 in Madrid qualifying back on April 20. That same page puts Charaeva at No. 125, Sasnovich just ahead at No. 120.
Charaeva took a longer path. According to the WTA draw, she knocked out fifth seed Sara Bejlek 6-4, 6-0, then squeezed past Tamara Korpatsch in three sets: 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-5. Sasnovich got through with wins over Talia Gibson 6-4, 6-0, and Anna Blinkova 7-5, 6-4.
Top seed Madison Keys remains in the mix and is set to play Anastasia Zakharova. Over in the other quarterfinal, Diane Parry advanced without lifting a racquet—Yulia Putintseva pulled out, according to the WTA draw. That hands Parry, playing at home, a smoother route into the semifinals than she might have anticipated.
The schedule is where the real risk sits—not just who’s across the net. Volynets and Starodubtseva barely got started before play halted, which means later matches might shift, and markets pegged to starts or live swings could snap around if things get going again. As of the Paris dateline, the WTA still hadn’t posted a final score for the match.
At this stage, Starodubtseva and Keys stand as the highest-ranked players still standing in Paris. Volynets has already knocked out a top seed, shaking up the bracket, while Charaeva-Sasnovich doesn’t fit the profile of an easy matchup. Whoever comes through that contest will drop into a draw that has seen surprises pile up, often from places no one had circled.
