'I learned my lesson': Starodubtseva's path from tough coaching to Top 100

As a child in Kakhovka, Ukraine, Yuliia Starodubtseva was a quick learner -- she had to be. Between the ages of five and 15, her coach was Anhelina Kalinina's grandmother, a woman who did not indulge nonsense from any of her charges.

"I was kicked out of practice one time," Starodubtseva said after defeating No.10 seed Anna Kalinskaya 7-5, 6-0 on Tuesday at the China Open to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal. "She told me to bend my knees 10 times and I didn't. I learned my lesson."

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Over a decade on, they're still in touch. This week, Kalinina's grandmother was one of the first to congratulate Starodubtseva on a breakthrough run in Beijing, texting her minutes after the Kalinskaya match. It was her first Top 20 win, and Starodubtseva has become only the seventh player since 2009 to make the last eight in her first WTA 1000 main draw, joining a list that includes major champions Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina.

It also guarantees Starodubtseva, the No.115-ranked qualifier, a Top 100 debut next week -- 16 months after entering the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time.

Clearly, Starodubtseva is still a quick learner. The speed of the 24-year-old's ascent since graduating from Old Dominion University in 2022 has been eye-catching. As recently as March last year, her friends set up a GoFundMe page to help Starodubtseva reach the bottom rung of the professional tennis ladder. It raised $25,000, enough for Starodubtseva and her boyfriend Pearse Dolan -- also an Old Dominion college player, and now her coach -- to take her first steps on tour.

"Thankful to them for believing in me when I was nothing, and I had nothing," Starodubtseva said after her win over Kalinskaya.

Now her financial worries are behind her thanks to a unique record she set this season. Starodubtseva successfully qualified for each Grand Slam. The consequent pay checks mean she's been able to stop stressing about money -- while also making a bit of tennis history. Starodubtseva was the first woman in the Open Era to qualify for all four majors in a single season.

"No way!" she says, laughing when told about the stat. "No one else ever did it? Honestly, I don't know what it was, but only at Slams I felt mentally strong. Besides Slams, you can see my results."

Following the US Open, Starodubtseva had won 13 Grand Slam matches this year -- and only 16 combined at all her other tournaments. Dolan joked with her that unless "big money" was on the line, she couldn't bring her best level.

In Monastir last month, that changed. Starodubtseva battled through a succession of nail-biters to qualify and reach her first WTA quarterfinal. She believes it sharpened up her mentality, contributing to her Beijing surge.

"[Monastir] was something I had to go through to toughen up inside my head," she said. "The rest of the season I wasn't as tough mentally as I feel now on court. I'm more positive and I'm more relaxed.

"[Dolan] made me think about what was not right in my head. I had to actually spend time with myself and answer questions myself, rather than looking for answers from other people. I felt I was putting too much pressure on myself. My first year [on tour] was quite successful. This year I had better opponents and I wasn't getting as many results as I would like to. But I feel like I've left that part now. I'm trying to just play, and trying to actually smile on court sometimes."

Starodubtseva's mentality has also been buoyed by the support she's received from her compatriots since beginning to play in Hologic WTA Tour events. The Ukrainians on tour have become a close-knit crew since their home country was invaded by Russia in 2022, and they've welcomed Starodubtseva, whose own home town is under occupation.

"I only started playing when the war started, and I didn't know them before," she said. "I was genuinely happy to get to know them, and they're such nice people. We go to dinner, we have good chemistry -- you don't see that much. Lesia [Tsurenko] often comes to my matches to support me, which honestly helps me a lot. She's a very experienced player and I feel she believes in me. That gives me my own belief to also believe in myself."

Starodubtseva's next test will be a match she describes as "the biggest of my career so far": a quarterfinal date in Beijing with No.4 seed Coco Gauff. The key, she says, is to block out the name and the occasion.

"The main thing for me is not to give too much respect, which I do sometimes as a new player," she said. "Even today, Anna is a great player, she's No.14 in the world. It's hard to put that fact aside when the player is much higher ranked. The main thing is to think of them as a regular opponent."