Anna Kalinskaya arrived at the 2024 Dubai Championships as a qualifier and left as the finalist who had beaten Coco Gauff and the world No. 1, Iga Swiatek, in back-to-back rounds. That fortnight turned a long apprenticeship into a breakout season: a first Grand Slam quarter-final at the Australian Open, a run through Aryna Sabalenka to the Berlin final on grass, and a career-high ranking of No. 11 by October 2024.
The tour title is still the missing line: three finals, Dubai and Berlin in 2024 and Washington in 2025, all ended in defeat, the last to Leylah Fernandez. Born in Moscow in 1998, she hits flat, clean and early, a game built on timing rather than raw power, which is why the biggest hitters so often struggle against her. The deep runs have not stopped: in 2026 she reached her first Roland Garros quarter-final, her first second week in Paris. On that evidence, the final she finally wins reads like a matter of time.
One point. That is how close Maja Chwalinska came to a first-round win at Wimbledon, a month after she reached the Roland Garros final, before her ankle gave way and the match turned. Mananchaya Sawangkaew, the world No. 164 from Thailand, came back to win 2-6 7-5 6-2.
Match tale