Anhelina Kalinina won the first match of Ukraine’s Billie Jean King Cup semi-final against Italy in Shenzhen on Saturday, beating Tyra Grant 6-3, 6-4, according to the Spanish news agency EFE. Elina Svitolina then beat Jasmine Paolini to put Ukraine into the competition’s final for the first time. Two days earlier Kalinina had done even more: she won the opening singles against Belgium and then, after Svitolina’s loss to Greet Minnen, won the deciding doubles with Lyudmyla Kichenok to take Ukraine through, as both the WTA and the Associated Press reported.
With Marta Kostyuk out of the team to rest her wrist, the WTA noted, Kalinina carried the second singles spot all week. It is the latest chapter in a career that peaked with a WTA 1000 final in Rome and has been rebuilt more than once after injury.
Nova Kakhovka and the junior years
Kalinina was born on 7 February 1997 in Nova Kakhovka, in southern Ukraine, and started playing at six, according to her WTA biography. She plays right-handed and stands 1.80 metres. As a junior she won the girls’ doubles at the 2014 Australian Open with Elizaveta Kulichkova and reached the girls’ singles final at the 2014 US Open, where she lost to Marie Bouzkova.
The transition was slow. A shoulder injury kept her out for ten months at the end of 2015, and she played only 12 matches in 2016, the WTA records. Her Grand Slam main-draw debut came at the 2018 US Open, where she came through qualifying and won a round before losing to Sloane Stephens 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Into the top 100
The breakthrough came in 2021. Kalinina entered the top 100 for the first time on 12 July, after winning the 100,000-dollar ITF event at Contrexeville, one of five ITF titles that year that took her total at that level to 15. At Roland Garros she beat Angelique Kerber in the first round. She reached her first WTA final in Budapest, losing to Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 6-0, and a quarter-final at the Transylvania Open. She finished the season at No. 52, then a career high.
In 2022 she reached four tour quarter-finals, at Charleston, Madrid, Eastbourne and Cluj-Napoca, losing to Ons Jabeur, Jil Teichmann, Jelena Ostapenko and Anna Blinkova. In December she won the WTA 125 event in Limoges, beating Clara Tauson 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the final.
Rome, 2023
The best stretch of her career came in the first half of 2023. At the Australian Open she reached the third round for the first time, losing to Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3; it remains her best Grand Slam singles result. In May she went all the way to the final of the Italian Open, a WTA 1000 event and the biggest final of her career.
She did not finish it. Kalinina retired with a left leg injury against Elena Rybakina, trailing 6-4, 1-0, according to the WTA’s records. The run still lifted her to her career-high ranking of No. 25 on 22 May 2023. She closed that season with a quarter-final in Zhengzhou, where she lost to the eventual champion, Zheng Qinwen.
Injury and the way back
In 2024 Kalinina reached three semi-finals, at Austin, Rouen and Strasbourg, losing to Wang Xiyu, Magda Linette and Danielle Collins. The 2025 season began with a semi-final in Brisbane, where Polina Kudermetova beat her, and a quarter-final in Cluj-Napoca. Then injury cost her six months. She came back in December to win Limoges again, beating Elsa Jacquemot 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the final.
The rebuild continued into 2026 on the WTA 125 circuit, where she won two titles in Antalya, beating Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 and Tamara Zidansek 6-0, 6-3 in the finals. She also lost 125 finals in Antalya, to Moyuka Uchijima, and in Dubrovnik, to Andrea Lazaro Garcia. At tour level she reached a third WTA final, in Rabat, where she lost to Petra Marcinko, and a quarter-final in Hamburg.
Doubles
Kalinina has reached the third round of women’s doubles at three majors: the 2023 Australian Open with Alison Van Uytvanck, and Roland Garros and the US Open in 2026, with Dayana Yastremska and Anna Bondar respectively. She reached the Doha semi-finals with Xu Yifan in 2024 and the Charleston semi-finals with Belinda Bencic in 2022. Her doubles in Shenzhen, alongside Kichenok, decided a Billie Jean King Cup quarter-final.
For Ukraine
Ukraine reached the Billie Jean King Cup semi-finals for the first time in 2025, when Italy beat them 2-1 in Shenzhen. This year Kalinina opened both ties. Against Belgium she beat Jana Otzipka 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-1, then partnered Kichenok to beat Magali Kempen and Lara Salden 6-3, 6-3 in the deciding doubles. Against Italy she beat Grant in straight sets to give Svitolina the chance to close out the tie, which she did. Ukraine play Czechia in the final on Sunday. For how the competition is structured, see How Billie Jean King Cup Works and our guide to the 2026 Finals. Her teammate is profiled in our Elina Svitolina profile.
Grand Slam best results (singles)
- Australian Open: third round (2023)
- Roland Garros: second round (2021, 2022, 2025)
- Wimbledon: second round (2022, 2023)
- US Open: second round (2018, 2021, 2022, 2024)
Season Snapshot — as of 26 September 2026
- WTA singles ranking: No. 48 (career high No. 25, 22 May 2023)
- Coach: Anton Korchevskyi
- 2026 WTA final: Rabat (runner-up)
- 2026 WTA 125 titles: two, both in Antalya; also runner-up in Antalya and Dubrovnik
- 2026 majors: lost in the first round at all four
- Billie Jean King Cup: won her singles against Belgium and Italy and the deciding doubles against Belgium; Ukraine play Czechia in the final on 27 September
This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.
