Anna Kalinskaya takes comfort after atrocious mockery
Despite losing in the final in Washington at the hands of Leylah Fernandez (6-1, 6-2 in just 68′), Anna Kalinskaya does, however, have a reason to smile: the WTA ranking update in fact sees the Moscow-based tennis player recover as many as 17 positions and return to the number 31 box of the ranking, with 1,487 points, only 22 less than Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who closes the Top 30.
Kalinskaya is among the four tennis players in the Top 100 who have recovered more than 15 positions in the rankings: the others are Greece’s Maria Sakkari, who climbs 18 rungs but moved up to 72nd position, the U.S.’s Taylor Townsend, who improved by 22 positions and moved up to No. 75, and Britain’s Francesca Jones, currently No. 84 after recovering, in turn, 17 positions.
After physical problems suffered in Strasbourg in May and first-round eliminations in Paris and Berlin, which was followed by a second-round knockout in Wimbledon, Kalinskaya returned to grind out play in the ‘her’ United States (the country where she has lived for some time now), defeating in’order Kamilla Rakhimova, Magda Linette, Clara Tauson and Emma Raducanu, before surrendering to Fernandez.
A 1998 class, Anna Kalinskaya has reached three finals in major circuit tournaments (Dubai and Berlin in 2024, Washington 2025), losing them to Jasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula, and Leylah Fernandez, respectively. She does, however, boast four doubles tournaments on her roster (Prague 2019 with Viktoria Kuzmova, Portoroz 2021 with Tereza Mihalikova, St. Petersburg 2022 with Caty McNally, and Madrid 2025 with Sorana Cirstea) and a singles victory in the WTA 125 in Midland in 2023.
