Anna Kalinskaya: a nightmarish hour in Dubai.
Just over an hour, for a real sports nightmare.
Anna Kalinskaya is continuing to experience a 2025 start to forget. After other disappointments collected in the various tournaments played in this month and a half, also in Dubai è came a very painful knockout. Beating the girlfriend of Jannik Sinner was Elina Svitolina, who was able to prevail in just over an hour of play and in two one-sided sets: 6-1, 6-2 the final.
And to say that Kalinskaya's Sunday seemed to have started in the best way, with an immediate break on the Ukrainian that put her immediately up 1-0. Too bad that at that point began a real monologue of Svitolina, able to secure six games in a row closing the set in less than half an hour. Slightly more open contention in the next set, with the Russian ahead but her opponent able this time to take it from 0-1 to 4-1. Sinner’s partner’s break was followed by an immediate counterbreak, which effectively ended the games for good.
The first month and a half of 2025 è proved to be really difficult for Anna Kalinskaya. The Russian tennis player è exited immediately in Brisbane and was forced to withdraw in both Adelaide and the Australian Open. After the disappointing weeks in Australia, the Moscow player hoped to pick herself up in Asia, but things did not go as she thought: withdrawal in Singapore, debacle in Doha (Qatar) against Spanish Cristina Bucsa, world number 116, and now the round knockout with Elina Svitolina.
A bitter disappointment for the Russian, who was looking to 2025 as the year of consecration and consolidation at the high level. Anna Kalinskaya è still among the top 20 in the world but now risks slipping in the rankings: the bad performance against Svitolina could represent the final act of this vertical collapse in the WTA ranking.
