Anna Kalinskaya opened 2025 at No.14 in the world — a career peak earned through sharp hitting, clean decision-making and a winter of belief that she was finally ready to stay among the sport’s top tier.
But seasons don’t follow intentions.
And this one began with warning signs that never entirely went away.
Injury niggles. Mid-match retirements. Strong wins immediately followed by abrupt, momentum-breaking losses.
By the time she reached Hong Kong in late October, Kalinskaya wasn’t fighting for a Top-10 breakthrough anymore — she was fighting simply not to fall further. She finished the year at No.33, a slide that didn’t feel like collapse, but absolutely felt like a retreat.
This is her year in full — the next chapter in our look back at the WTA’s 2025 cast, where expectations are high, the calendar unforgiving, and yes, everyone gets a GPA by season’s end.
Read all our WTA 2025 season assessments here.
A Start Full of Red Flags: January in Australia and Singapore
Kalinskaya began in Adelaide as the No.7 seed — and immediately retired against Belinda Bencic after trailing 6-2, 1-0.
Not ideal, but not yet alarming.
Wins over McNally, Waltert and Sawangkaew in Singapore looked solid, but the semifinal ended in another retirement, down 7-6, 1-0 to Ann Li. The pattern was forming: good tennis, fragile durability.
In Melbourne, she didn’t get due to the retirements.
Spring Hard Courts: Good Wins, Brutal Exits
Miami and Doha brought frustrating defeats:
• A tight three-setter against Pegula in Miami where she competed but couldn’t close.
• A stinging early loss to Cristina Bucsa in Doha after winning the first set.
Dubai didn’t help much either: a flat 6-1, 6-2 loss to Svitolina.
Charleston again delivered something meaningful:
• Wins over Caty McNally and, crucially, a straight-set victory over Madison Keys, one of her best of the year.
• But Sofia Kenin ended her run in the quarters.
Kalinskaya looked dangerous — but not durable.
Clay: One Real Highlight, then the Slide Returns
The clay season offered exactly one moment that truly landed:
Her upset of Jessica Pegula in Strasbourg, a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win that showed how high her level still was when the body cooperated.
But the rest? Tough:
• Loss to Keys in Madrid
• Early exit in Rome to Peyton Stearns
• A disappointing first-round loss at Roland Garros to Marie Bouzkova
The Top-15 aura was fading rapidly.
Grass: A Calendar of Missed Opportunities
Grass never materialised into a platform.
• Shock upset by Ella Seidel in Berlin qualifying — as the No.1 seed.
• A respectable R128 win at Wimbledon, followed by a straight-sets loss to Clara Tauson.
• No momentum, no rhythm, no run.
The American Swing: One Week of Fire, One Week of Hope, and Then the Quiet Drop
If there was a stretch where Kalinskaya briefly looked like the Top-15 player she’d been in January, it came not in Cincinnati alone — but earlier also, in Washington.
There, she pieced together one of her sharpest runs of 2025:
she dismantled Magda Linette, out-thought Clara Tauson, handled Emma Raducanu with real authority, and reached the final without dropping a set in the semis. The title match never ignited — Leylah Fernandez smothered her 6-1, 6-2 — but for a few days in D.C., Kalinskaya’s game looked clean, clear, and ambitious again.
Then came Cincinnati, her other bright window.
She beat Peyton Stearns, stunned Amanda Anisimova 7-5 6-4, and reversed the rhythm on Ekaterina Alexandrova in a gritty three-setter. Three quality wins in a row, the aggression crisp, the footwork sharper than it had been in months. Swiatek stopped her in the quarters, 6-3, 6-4, but there was no shame in that — it was the closest she came all year to rediscovering the version of herself that cracked the Top 15.
Montreal one weekl before, though, had swung the pendulum back.
A gutsy comeback over Elise Mertens was the lone highlight before Elina Svitolina pushed her aside in just over an hour.
At the US Open, Kalinskaya produced a steady enough first week — clean wins over wild card Clervie Ngounoue and Yulia Putintseva — but once again Iga Swiatek closed the door, this time again in a straight-sets match that never quite threatened to turn.
She left New York ranked No.29, drifting downward, the season’s pattern already clear: a few bursts of high quality, no sustained foothold, and a ranking that continued to seep away match by match.
Asia: More Retirements, More Frustration, No Turnaround
Beijing ended with a three-set loss to Camila Osorio.
Wuhan opened with a loss to Rebecca Sramkova.
Tokyo saw her retire again, this time trailing 6-0, 1-0 to Linda Noskova.
Hong Kong? Another retirement, trailing 6-1, 3-1 to Victoria Mboko.
By October, the story was becoming unavoidable:
Kalinskaya could still deliver quality wins (Shnaider, Lamens, Rakhimova), but she could not string together a healthy run.
The Kalinskaya Assessment
Anna Kalinskaya’s 2025 wasn’t a catastrophe — it was something trickier:
A season where the level remained high, but the foundation beneath it kept cracking.
She scored wins over:
• Madison Keys
• Amanda Anisimova
• Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Diana Shnaider
• Magda Linette
• Clara Tauson
But she ended the season with:
• Five retirements
• No titles
• No Slam second week
• A ranking drop from No.14 to No.33
She didn’t fall out of relevance — but she absolutely fell out of the chase.
Her tennis is still Top-20 level.
Her consistency and durability right now are not.
Final Verdict: C+
A year of sharp flashes, undermined by physical setbacks and loss of continuity.
Her best weeks were close to brilliant.
Her worst weeks were exits that came too quickly, too often.
The talent remains untouched.
The question — going into 2026 — is whether her body will finally allow her to play the season she knows she has inside her.
GPA: 2.4
A season that slipped, but didn’t sink.
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