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Jaume Munar Profile — From 0-11 in Grand Slam Second Rounds to a US Open Last 16

Steven Hodel
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Jaume Munar Profile — From 0-11 in Grand Slam Second Rounds to a US Open Last 16

Jaume Munar spent most of a decade as a fixture of the top 100 before his best results arrived in his late twenties. The Mallorcan reached his first Grand Slam fourth round at 28, set a career-high ranking at the end of that season, and has built much of his career a level below the main tour.

Early years

Munar, from Santanyí in Mallorca, was born on 5 May 1997. He began playing at eight on hard courts, according to his ATP Tour biography, grew up idolising Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, and rose to No. 3 in the junior rankings. His nickname, Jimbo, comes from an on-court temperament his biography likens to Jimmy Connors’.

Tennis was not the only plan. Munar once aimed to become a doctor, the ATP Tour reported. “Suddenly when I was 21, I became Top 100 and it was financially okay, so I decided to keep going,” he said.

Next Gen and a first final

He reached the semifinals of the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals. The ATP Tour has noted that his class that year included Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz, Andrey Rublev, Frances Tiafoe and Hubert Hurkacz, all of whom later reached the top 10. Munar entered the top 100 in June 2018 and reached No. 52 in 2019.

His first tour-level final came at Marbella in 2021, where he beat Carlos Alcaraz on the way before losing to countryman Pablo Carreño Busta. Two of his biggest wins came against world No. 3s: Alexander Zverev in the second round at Marrakech in 2019, and Casper Ruud in the first round in Tokyo in 2022.

The Grand Slam breakthrough

For years the majors stopped him at the same place. Munar began his career 0-11 in Grand Slam second-round matches, according to the ATP Tour. The run ended at Wimbledon in 2025, where he beat Alexander Bublik, then No. 31, in the first round and reached the third round. At the US Open that summer he went a round further, into the fourth round of a major for the first time, before losing 6-3, 6-0, 6-1 to Lorenzo Musetti, against whom he had led their head-to-head 2-1.

He had entered that US Open at a career-high No. 44. He broke into the top 50 in July 2025, finished the year with a personal-best 31 wins, and reached a career-high No. 33 in December 2025.

A Challenger mainstay

His ATP biography credits him with a 142-73 record on the ATP Challenger Tour and 10 titles from 18 finals, the most recent on clay at Bad Waltersdorf in 2024. Clay is his favourite surface, the biography says, and the serve his favourite shot.

Grand Slam best results

  • Australian Open — Second round
  • Roland Garros — Second round
  • Wimbledon — Third round (2025)
  • US Open — Fourth round (2025)

Season Snapshot (as of 1 October 2026)

  • Ranking: No. 64
  • ATP Tour titles: none
  • Tokyo: came through qualifying with wins over Marcos Giron and Aleksandar Kovacevic, then beat third seed Taylor Fritz 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-3 in the first round in two hours and 57 minutes, his first win in three meetings with Fritz. He let slip six set points in the first set and saved seven of the eight break points he faced, according to the ATP Tour.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

More players: GTN player profiles.

Almaty Open Guide — Dates, Venue, Draw and Past Champions

Steven Hodel
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Almaty Open Guide — Dates, Venue, Draw and Past Champions

Daniil Medvedev had lost six finals in the 882 days since his last title when he reached the Almaty Open final last October. He beat Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 and dedicated the trophy to his younger daughter, Victoria. “It continues my funny story of 21 titles in 21 different cities,” he said, according to the ATP. The ATP 250 in Kazakhstan returns on Oct. 19-25, 2026, the week after the Shanghai Masters.

When and where

The ATP lists the 2026 Almaty Open for Oct. 19-25. The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation gives the tournament week as Oct. 17-25. The event is played indoors on hard courts at Almaty Arena, which the ATP described as the largest sports facility in Kazakhstan when it announced the move from Astana.

Almaty shares its week with two other ATP 250 events, the European Open in Brussels and Lyon. The week after brings the ATP 500s in Basel and Vienna, the start of the European indoor season.

Format and points

Almaty is an ATP 250 tournament, so the singles champion receives 250 ranking points. The ATP’s 2025 draw had 28 players in singles, with the top four seeds given first-round byes. For players near the cut in the Race to Turin, a late-October title can matter: Medvedev’s win last year moved him up three places to 12th in the ATP’s Live Race.

From Astana to Almaty

Kazakhstan’s ATP event began in 2020 in the capital, then called Nur-Sultan, and was played there for its first four editions. In 2022 it ran as an ATP 500, and Novak Djokovic beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4 in 75 minutes for the 90th tour-level title of his career, according to the ATP. It was back at 250 level by 2023. In December 2023 the ATP announced that the event would relocate from Astana to Almaty for 2024.

The Almaty finals

Both finals in Almaty have gone to three sets. In 2024 Karen Khachanov led Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 4-2 before Diallo saved five break points in a 15-minute game and turned the second set, the ATP reported. “You can’t expect a final to be easy, without tension, but it was until 6-2, 4-2,” Khachanov said. He created 19 break points against Diallo’s serve and won the decider 6-3 for his seventh tour-level title, his first on indoor hard courts since the 2018 Paris Masters.

Medvedev’s final against Moutet lasted two hours and 29 minutes. Moutet hit nine winners and made two unforced errors to take the second set, but in the third Medvedev hit deep to pin the Frenchman behind the baseline and keep him from controlling points with the drop shot, according to the ATP.

Past champions

  • 2025 (Almaty): Daniil Medvedev d. Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
  • 2024 (Almaty): Karen Khachanov d. Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 5-7, 6-3
  • 2023 (Astana): Adrian Mannarino d. Sebastian Korda 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
  • 2022 (Astana, ATP 500): Novak Djokovic d. Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 6-4
  • 2021 (Nur-Sultan): Soonwoo Kwon d. James Duckworth 7-6 (6), 6-3
  • 2020 (Nur-Sultan): John Millman d. Adrian Mannarino

Mannarino is the only player to reach two finals at the event. Kwon’s 2021 title was his first on the ATP Tour and made him the second South Korean man to win a tour-level title in the Open Era, after Hyung-Taik Lee, according to the ATP.

The 2026 field

The Kazakhstan Tennis Federation has announced commitments from Tomas Martin Etcheverry, Tomas Machac, Fabian Marozsan and Alexander Shevchenko. Commitments are not an entry list, and fields move through the final week as players withdraw and alternates move in.

Quick facts

  • Dates: 19 to 25 October 2026 (ATP).
  • Venue: Almaty Arena, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
  • Surface: indoor hard court.
  • Category: ATP 250, with 250 ranking points to the singles champion.
  • Singles draw: 28 players in 2025.
  • Defending champion: Daniil Medvedev.

Alcaraz Says Best-of-Three Would Kill the Grand Slams, and Wants the Calendar Cut Instead

Steven Hodel
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Alcaraz Says Best-of-Three Would Kill the Grand Slams, and Wants the Calendar Cut Instead

Carlos Alcaraz pulled apart two arguments in Tokyo on Wednesday that have been running together since the US Open: how long Grand Slam matches should be, and how many weeks a season should ask of the players in them. He wants the first left alone and the second cut.

“The beauty of the Grand Slams is playing best-of-five sets. If we take away that and play best-of-three sets, we’re killing the legacy of the Grand Slams and killing the Grand Slams,” Alcaraz told reporters at the Japan Open, Reuters reported. “We’ve been playing best-of-five sets in the Grand Slam since the very beginning, and I think that’s what makes those tournaments different and special. I wouldn’t touch anything from that and for me, it’s okay to play best-of-five.”

On the schedule, his answer went the other way. “I’ve always said that it has to change,” he said of the calendar. “Playing a little bit less and not having that amount of tournaments in a row, week after week. So I definitely would change that.”

Why it came up now. Reuters traced the latest round of the debate to the US Open, where Ben Shelton ended Alcaraz’s title defence in a quarterfinal that finished at 3:33 a.m. Two format ideas have been in circulation. Novak Djokovic has proposed best-of-three matches in the early rounds of the majors, and new Tennis Australia chief Andrew Abdo said at the Sport NXT conference in September that the majors could explore alternative formats or scoring systems. The Australian Open followed with a clarification that five-set tennis was “here to stay”, and said it would reveal more ahead of the 2027 tournament.

It is the second time in a week that Alcaraz has used a news conference to push on how the sport is run. At the Laver Cup in London he argued that tennis is getting slower because of the balls, not the courts.

Testing “since the very beginning.” The claim holds for men’s singles at the majors, where the format dates to the earliest championships, and almost nowhere else. As GTN’s explainer on best-of-five sets sets out, men’s singles at the four Grand Slams is the only place professional tennis still uses it. Women’s singles at the same four events is best-of-three. The tradition Alcaraz is defending is real, but it belongs to one draw at each major, not to the Grand Slams as a whole.

Testing “a little bit less.” Alcaraz’s own October shows how the calendar he describes works in practice. He played the Laver Cup in London last week, beating Taylor Fritz 6-3, 4-6, 13-11, according to AP. He is the top seed this week in Tokyo, where the main draw runs from 30 September to 6 October, according to the ATP Tour. The Rolex Shanghai Masters, which lists him among its top seeds, runs from 5 to 18 October including qualifying. If he reaches the Tokyo final, he will finish one event after the next has already begun.

Of those three weeks, only Tokyo and Shanghai carry ranking points. The Laver Cup does not. The week he chose freely came first. The two that follow are where the tour keeps its points.

Where the decisions sit. Alcaraz missed nearly five months of this season with a wrist injury before returning in New York, Reuters reported. The ATP has argued the other side of his case. Its chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi, defended the calendar last year, saying scheduling remained the players’ choice and that the tour was working to set clear incentives so the right number of matches were played across a season, according to Reuters. Calendar concerns also feature in the Professional Tennis Players Association’s class-action lawsuit against the sport’s governing bodies, and the four majors have formed a Player Advisory Council to hear players on welfare and compensation.

The lasting question. The format of a Grand Slam match is decided by four tournaments. The shape of the season is spread across the ATP, the WTA, the ITF and the majors. Alcaraz is defending the thing the Slams control and asking for change in the thing no single body controls. The Australian Open’s promised 2027 announcement will show whether the format debate is closing. The calendar debate has no comparable date.

Nishikori Ends His Career 6-4, 6-4 Against Tiafoe on the Court Where He Won Tokyo Twice

Steven Hodel
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Nishikori Ends His Career 6-4, 6-4 Against Tiafoe on the Court Where He Won Tokyo Twice

Kei Nishikori ended his career on Thursday with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to second seed Frances Tiafoe in the first round of the Japan Open, making his final appearance on the court where he won the Tokyo title in 2012 and 2014.

The match ended with an extended rally before Tiafoe offered a muted celebration and embraced Nishikori at the net. The crowd at Ariake Coliseum rose to applaud the Japanese player. “Playing in Japan is always a special moment,” Nishikori told the home crowd. “I wish I could have put in a slightly more convincing performance. But I’m happy I kept fighting right to the end.”

Organizers honored his two decades on tour with a video tribute and the tribute included messages from Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang. Nishikori then completed a lap of honor around the court.

The match. Nishikori expressed disappointment with his performance at the final news conference of his career. “The match itself wasn’t that good, honestly, so I’m left with some frustration,” he said in Japanese. The significance of the occasion sank in after he left the court. “Right when it ended, it wasn’t that intense. But sitting on the bench, it hit me all at once.” He compared the moment to having “a huge amount of money in the bank and suddenly it’s zero.”

No second thoughts. Nishikori acknowledged a brief desire to continue but said his decision was final. “Honestly, a feeling that I could keep going a little longer is starting to come up right now; I’m definitely not going to, though,” he said. Before the tournament, he had spoken about ending his career at home. “I am excited to play in Japan but I also know this is my last moment,” he said. “So, it’s kind of sad.”

Nishikori received a wild card for his 12th and final appearance at the ATP 500 tournament. He entered the week with a 24-9 record at the event and finished at 24-10.

The record. Nishikori became the first Asian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final at the 2014 US Open, beating Djokovic in the semifinals before losing to Marin Cilic. He was also the second Asian man to enter the top 10, after Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan, Reuters noted. Nishikori reached a career-high No. 4 in 2015, won 12 ATP titles and earned Olympic singles bronze at Rio 2016. His 72.5 per cent winning percentage in deciding sets ranks third in ATP Tour history, behind Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. His career is covered in GTN’s Kei Nishikori profile.

Injuries repeatedly interrupted the second half of his career. He missed the Australian Open in January with right shoulder pain. Djokovic praised Nishikori’s persistence in his tribute message. “Your resilience and your fighting spirit to always come back after all the adversity you had with your body, injuries and everything that you faced is really commendable and admirable,” he said. Tournament top seed Carlos Alcaraz also contributed a message, saying he considered himself a fan.

What he leaves behind. Nishikori has voiced concern this season about the lack of Asian players near the top of the men’s rankings. After his final US Open appearance ended with a qualifying loss to fellow Japanese player Rei Sakamoto in August, he said: “It’s kind of sad that there [are] no Top-20 or Top-30 Asian players after me. That a little bit worries me.”

Tiafoe advances to the second round. Earlier on Thursday, third seed Taylor Fritz lost 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-3 to qualifier Jaume Munar. See GTN’s Japan Open draw preview for the draw breakdown and the Japan Open guide for tournament information.

Kimberly Birrell Profile — Two Lost Finals, Then a First Title in Seoul at 28

Steven Hodel
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Kimberly Birrell Profile — Two Lost Finals, Then a First Title in Seoul at 28

Kimberly Birrell lost her first tour-level final in Osaka in 2024 and her second in Chennai in 2025. On Sept. 27, 2026, at 28, she won the third. The Australian beat compatriot Maya Joint 6-4, 6-2 in the Korea Open final in Seoul in 1 hour, 23 minutes, according to the WTA, in the first all-Australian final on the WTA Tour since 2017.

It was the kind of week her career has been built on. She lost her opening service game of the final and trailed 0-2, then took the next four games, Agence France-Presse reported, and Joint lost all four of her service games in the second set. A day earlier, after rain forced a quarterfinal and semifinal into the same day, Birrell came from a set down to beat Katie Volynets and then won in three sets against Anna Bondar, the WTA said. In the first round she had overturned a 3-0 deficit in the second set against Tamara Zidansek.

Quick facts

  • Born: April 29, 1998, in Dusseldorf, Germany
  • Country: Australia
  • Plays: right-handed
  • Height: 1.70m (5 ft 7 in)
  • Career-high singles ranking: No. 56
  • WTA singles titles: 1 (Seoul, 2026)
  • Grand Slam final: 2025 Australian Open mixed doubles, with John-Patrick Smith

Early career and the elbow

Birrell was born in Germany to Australian parents and started playing at 4, according to her WTA biography. She played her first professional events on the ITF circuit in Australia in 2012 and made her WTA qualifying debut in Hobart in 2014. Two years later in Hobart she won a round in her first tour main draw as a wild card, losing to Dominika Cibulkova, and reached the doubles final with Jarmila Wolfe.

The start of 2019 looked like the breakthrough. As a wild card in Brisbane she beat the world No. 10, Daria Kasatkina. At the Australian Open, in only her second Grand Slam main draw, she beat 29th-ranked Donna Vekic to reach the third round, where Angelique Kerber stopped her. She then missed the second half of 2019 and the whole of 2020 to have elbow surgery, the WTA says.

The long way back

The return was slow. In 2022 she reached three ITF finals and won a W60 title in Playford. In 2023 she reached her first WTA quarterfinal as a qualifier in Merida, made the quarterfinals in Seoul and broke into the top 100 for the first time.

The first final came in Osaka in 2024, as a qualifier, and ended in a loss to Suzan Lamens. The second came in Chennai in 2025, a loss to Janice Tjen. That season she also reached her first WTA 500 quarterfinal in Brisbane, reached a career-high of No. 60 in May and finished a year inside the top 100 for the first time, according to her WTA biography. At the 2025 Australian Open she and John-Patrick Smith reached the mixed doubles final, losing to Olivia Gadecki and John Peers.

2026: wins at every major

Birrell’s 2026 is the first season in which she has won a main-draw match at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, according to her WTA Grand Slam record. She reached the second round at all three, starting with her first-round win in Paris. She also reached the semifinals in Adelaide and Austin, the quarterfinals of the Australian Open women’s doubles with Talia Gibson, and in Eastbourne saved two set points to beat Barbora Krejcikova in the first round, the WTA said.

Playing style

Her WTA biography describes her as a baseliner whose favourite shot is the forehand and whose favourite surface is hard courts. She is coached by Nicole Pratt and Chris Mahony.

Billie Jean King Cup

Birrell made her Billie Jean King Cup debut for Australia in 2016 and lost her first five singles matches in the competition, according to the ITF. Her first singles wins came in 2025, against Colombia’s Yuliana Lizarazo at the Qualifiers and against Portugal’s Matilda Jorge and Brazil’s Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva at the Play-offs. She has won the only doubles match she has played, with Storm Hunter against Slovenia at the 2023 Finals.

Grand Slam best results

  • Australian Open: third round (2019)
  • Roland Garros: second round (2026)
  • Wimbledon: second round (2026)
  • US Open: second round (2026)
  • Women’s doubles: Australian Open quarterfinal (2026, with Talia Gibson)
  • Mixed doubles: Australian Open final (2025, with John-Patrick Smith)

Season Snapshot (as of Sept. 27, 2026)

  • Ranking entering Seoul: No. 60 (WTA). The rankings after her title publish on Monday.
  • 2026 singles record entering Seoul: 23-23 (WTA), plus five wins in Seoul.
  • 2026 results: champion Seoul (as No. 2 seed); semifinals Adelaide and Austin; second round Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open.
  • Coaches: Nicole Pratt and Chris Mahony.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

More player profiles: Tennis Player Profiles.

Cameron Norrie Profile — Britain’s First Indian Wells Champion

Steven Hodel
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Cameron Norrie Profile — Britain’s First Indian Wells Champion

Cameron Norrie became the first British champion at Indian Wells in 2021, in the 46th year of the tournament, according to the ATP. The Masters 1000 title was the high point of a run in which the left-hander reached 13 ATP Tour finals between May 2021 and February 2023, and it carried him into the Top 10 the following spring.

His route there ran through three countries and an American college. He won 52 tour-level matches in 2021 and 49 in 2022, according to the ATP.

Three countries before the tour

Norrie was born in South Africa to a Scottish father and a Welsh mother and grew up in New Zealand, according to his ATP biography. Both parents played squash at university level. His mother introduced him to tennis at six, and he started out hitting with a squash racquet in the family driveway.

He played most of his junior career for New Zealand, then moved to London on his own and has represented Great Britain since 2013. Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal were his idols growing up, and his nickname on tour is Noz.

Texas Christian University

Norrie spent three years at Texas Christian University, from 2015 to 2017 according to the ATP, studying sociology. He finished his college career as the No. 1 player in the United States. His coach, Facundo Lugones, was a TCU senior when Norrie arrived as a freshman, and the Horned Frogs reached the NCAA Final Four in 2015.

2021: Los Cabos and Indian Wells

Norrie’s first two ATP Tour titles both came in 2021, at Los Cabos and at Indian Wells. He marked them with a tattoo on his left thigh of a desert with two cacti, according to the ATP. The Indian Wells title made him the tournament’s first British champion and started the climb that took him into the Top 10.

Top 10 and a Wimbledon semifinal

Norrie broke into the Top 10 in April 2022 and reached a career-high No. 8 that September. He was the fourth British man in the Top 10, after Tim Henman, Andy Murray and Greg Rusedski, according to the ATP.

At Wimbledon that summer he reached the fourth round, quarterfinals and semifinals of a major for the first time in a single fortnight, losing to the eventual champion, Novak Djokovic, in four sets. At the US Open he was seeded seventh and reached the fourth round, where Andrey Rublev beat him 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. The ATP described Norrie’s performance that day as uncharacteristically wayward.

Rio 2023

A week after losing the Buenos Aires final to Carlos Alcaraz, Norrie met him again in the Rio Open final and trailed 7-5, 3-0, 0/30. Alcaraz was struggling physically as the match went on, the ATP reported, and Norrie came back to win 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 42 minutes, ending it with an ace down the T. It was his fifth ATP Tour title.

“A set and a break down and 0/30 on my serve, I was looking done there,” Norrie said afterward, according to the ATP.

Coming forward

At the 2024 Australian Open, Norrie took Alexander Zverev to a deciding tie-break in the fourth round. He frequently came to the net or used drop shots to disrupt Zverev’s rhythm, the ATP said, before Zverev won eight of the last nine points to close out a four-hour, five-minute match.

2025: a second Wimbledon quarterfinal and Alcaraz in Paris

Norrie reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time in 2025, after three previous third-round finishes, ESPN reported. There he lost 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 to Djokovic, who recorded his 100th win at the tournament, according to the ATP. At Wimbledon he reached his second major quarterfinal, losing to the eventual finalist, Alcaraz. Later that season, at the Masters 1000 in Paris, he beat Alcaraz while Alcaraz was world No. 1, the biggest win of his career according to the ATP.

Grand Slam best results

  • Australian Open: fourth round (2024)
  • Roland Garros: fourth round (2025)
  • Wimbledon: semifinal (2022)
  • US Open: fourth round (2022)

Season Snapshot — as of 28 September 2026

This week. Norrie is unseeded at the China Open in Beijing and opens against top seed Zverev. The ATP says Zverev has won 46 of his past 47 matches against left-handers.

Australian Open. Zverev also beat him in January, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the third round, ESPN reported.

Coach. Facundo Lugones, according to the ATP biography updated on 27 August 2026.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

Anhelina Kalinina Profile — From a Rome Final to a Billie Jean King Cup Final

Steven Hodel
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Anhelina Kalinina Profile — From a Rome Final to a Billie Jean King Cup Final

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.

Paula Badosa Profile — From Indian Wells Champion to World No. 2

Steven Hodel
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Paula Badosa Profile — From Indian Wells Champion to World No. 2

Paula Badosa won the girls’ singles title at Roland Garros in 2015, beating Anna Kalinskaya in the final. Six years later she won Indian Wells, the biggest title of her career, and in April 2022 she was No. 2 in the world. The seasons since have been shaped as much by her back as by her tennis.

New York and the Costa Brava

Badosa was born in New York City on 15 November 1997 and represents Spain. According to her WTA biography, her hometown is Begur on the Costa Brava; she often trains in Barcelona and lives in Dubai. She speaks English, Spanish and Catalan, and names Maria Sharapova as her childhood idol.

The long way up

She played her first professional tournament in 2012 and won her first ITF title that same year, according to the WTA. As a wild card at the 2015 Miami Open she reached the third round, her first breakthrough on the tour, but she was still ranked 143rd at the end of 2018. Her Grand Slam main-draw debut came as a qualifier at the 2019 Australian Open, where she lost in the first round to Kimberly Birrell.

The first real run at a major came at Roland Garros in 2020. She beat former finalist Sloane Stephens and 2017 champion Jelena Ostapenko on the way to the fourth round.

2021, Belgrade to Indian Wells

Her first WTA title came on clay in Belgrade in 2021, over Ana Konjuh in the final. She reached the semifinals in Charleston, Madrid and Lyon that season, and the Roland Garros quarterfinals. In October she won Indian Wells, beating two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in a third-set tiebreak in the final, the WTA reported. The title took her into the top 20 on Oct. 18. She reached the top 10 on Nov. 8 and then made the semifinals of the WTA Finals in Guadalajara.

No. 2

Badosa opened 2022 with the Sydney title and reached the semifinals at Indian Wells, Stuttgart and San Jose that year. On 25 April 2022 she rose to No. 2, her career high, according to the WTA.

The back

In 2023 she reached the semifinals at the second Adelaide event and the quarterfinals in Charleston, Stuttgart and Rome, but withdrew from Roland Garros with a back injury and did not play after Wimbledon, according to the WTA. She finished that year ranked 66th.

The recovery in 2024 was quick. She won her fourth title in Washington, reached the semifinals at Cincinnati, Beijing and Ningbo and the US Open quarterfinals, and finished the year at No. 12. The WTA named her its Comeback Player of the Year.

At the 2025 Australian Open she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal, losing 6-4, 6-2 to Aryna Sabalenka, and returned to the top 10 for the first time since October 2022. Injuries took over the rest of that season. She withdrew from Indian Wells, the scene of her biggest title, with a lower back injury, and played only one tournament after Wimbledon, reaching the third round in Beijing, according to the WTA.

The game

Her WTA biography describes her as an aggressive baseliner whose favourite shot is the serve. Three of her four tour titles have come on hard courts, including the one that made her name, at Indian Wells.

Grand Slam best results

  • Australian Open: semifinal (2025)
  • Roland Garros: quarterfinal (2021)
  • Wimbledon: fourth round (2024)
  • US Open: quarterfinal (2024)

WTA titles

  • Belgrade (2021)
  • Indian Wells (2021)
  • Sydney (2022)
  • Washington (2024)

Season Snapshot — 30 September 2026

Badosa is ranked 59th, according to her WTA player page, and is unseeded at the China Open in Beijing, where she opens against Daria Kasatkina. The two met in the first round of the US Open, a match that took Badosa two days and nine match points to win after rain stopped play, according to the WTA; she lost to Coco Gauff in the next round.

Earlier in 2026 she won the WTA 125 title in Bastad and reached the final in Iasi, and in September she reached the semifinals in Sao Paulo. She is coached by Pol Toledo, according to the WTA.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

More: the full ATP and WTA player index.

WTA Finals Qualification Explained — Race Points, the Grand Slam Rule and the Cutoff

Steven Hodel
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WTA Finals Qualification Explained — Race Points, the Grand Slam Rule and the Cutoff

Elena Rybakina was the eighth and last player to qualify for the 2025 WTA Finals, and then won the title. A year later she was the first singles qualifier for 2026, confirmed by the WTA on Sept. 14, two days after she won the US Open. Aryna Sabalenka followed on Sept. 29. That leaves six singles places at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where the WTA Finals are played from Nov. 8 to 15.

The eight are chosen by the PIF Race to the WTA Finals, a points table with rules of its own. This explainer follows the WTA’s published Race qualification rules.

The Race Year

Race points count from tournaments beginning the week before the previous year’s WTA Finals through tournaments beginning two weeks before the upcoming Finals. The WTA calls this period the Race Year. Results from the 2025 tournaments in Chennai, Hong Kong and Jiujiang, played the week before last year’s Finals, count toward the 2026 Race. The 2026 tournaments in Tokyo and Guangzhou are the last that count this year.

Two kinds of results never count. WTA 125 and ITF tournaments are excluded, and so are the WTA Finals themselves: winning the Finals adds nothing to the following season’s Race.

The 18 results that count

A singles player’s Race total is built from 18 results, and the rules specify where each comes from:

  • The four Grand Slams: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.
  • The best six results from the seven combined WTA 1000 events: Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Toronto/Montreal, Cincinnati and Beijing.
  • The best one result from the three non-combined WTA 1000 events: Doha, Dubai and Wuhan.
  • The best seven results from other WTA 1000, WTA 500 and WTA 250 tournaments.

Zero-point results for missed mandatory WTA 1000 events and unmet WTA 500 commitments are included among the 18. How they are placed is covered below.

The eight-tournament minimum

To be eligible in singles, a player must have played at least eight WTA 1000 mandatory or WTA 500 tournaments during the Race Year. The exception is a player exempted because of a long-term injury. The rule means points alone are not enough: a player who finishes high on the leaderboard from a short schedule still has to meet the minimum.

Who gets the eight places

Qualification is decided in this order:

  1. The top seven players on the Race leaderboard.
  2. The highest-ranked current-year Grand Slam champion who is ranked eighth to 20th and has not already qualified.
  3. If there is no such champion, the next highest-ranked player, eighth or lower.

The second step is the one that changes outcomes. A player who wins a major but has a thin season elsewhere can take the last place ahead of the player who finished eighth on points. A champion ranked 21st or lower gets no such protection, and a champion who is already in the top seven qualifies on points, which leaves the eighth place to the leaderboard.

The zero-point rule

A penalty on a player’s WTA ranking for not playing a Grand Slam, a mandatory WTA 1000 or a WTA 500 commitment is applied to her Race points as well. The points come off her lowest-scoring result in the matching group:

  • A zero at a Grand Slam counts in the four-Slam group.
  • A zero at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Canada, Cincinnati or Beijing counts in the best-six-of-seven group.
  • A zero at Doha, Dubai or Wuhan counts in the best-one-of-three group.
  • A zero for a missed WTA 500 commitment counts in the best-seven group.

The WTA gives this example: a player who plays five WTA 500 events, one short of the six required, and incurs a penalty loses the ranking and Race points from her lowest-scoring 500 of the season. Which absences bring a penalty and which are excused is set out in our explainer on WTA mandatory events.

Ties

If two singles players finish level on points, the tie is broken by, in order: the most points from WTA 1000 mandatory tournaments, the best single WTA 1000 mandatory result, the best single WTA 500 result and the best single WTA 250 result.

Doubles

Doubles teams qualify on their best 12 results together during the Race Year, from the Grand Slams and WTA 1000, 500 and 250 tournaments. Each player must have played doubles at a minimum of six WTA tournaments during the Race Year, unless exempt for long-term injury, and the pair must have competed together at least twice. A player who qualifies with more than one team chooses which to play with; the partner she does not choose is in only if she qualifies with another team. The selection order mirrors singles: the top seven teams, then the highest-ranked current-year Grand Slam winning team ranked eighth to 20th, then the next highest-ranked team.

The Race and the rankings

The Race and the WTA rankings are different tables. The rankings roll over 52 weeks, so a result stays on a player’s ranking for a year whenever it was won. The Race counts only the current Race Year and starts again after the Finals, which is why a player can sit higher in one table than in the other. The Finals field is set by the Race alone.

The format

The eight singles players and eight doubles teams are split into two round-robin groups of four. The top two in each group advance to the knockout stage, according to the WTA. For the men’s equivalent, see our guide to the Race to Turin.

2026 Race Snapshot — 30 September 2026

Qualified in singles: Elena Rybakina (confirmed Sept. 14) and Aryna Sabalenka (Sept. 29), according to the WTA. Qualified in doubles as of Sept. 14: Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani, and Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic.

This year’s Grand Slam singles champions are Rybakina (Australian Open and US Open), Mirra Andreeva (Roland Garros) and Linda Noskova (Wimbledon). Rybakina is already in. For Andreeva and Noskova, the champion rule comes into play only if either finishes the Race between eighth and 20th.

Jessica Pegula was third on the WTA’s Race leaderboard when she withdrew from the China Open. The China Open in Beijing, which runs to Oct. 11, and the Wuhan Open, Oct. 12-18, are the last WTA 1000 events that count.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The rules above do not.

Cristina Bucsa Profile — Olympic Bronze, and a First Singles Title at 28

Steven Hodel
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Cristina Bucsa Profile — Olympic Bronze, and a First Singles Title at 28

Cristina Bucsa had lost all ten of her matches against Top 10 players, every one of them in straight sets, when she walked on court against Jasmine Paolini in the Mérida semifinals at the end of February 2026. She won 7-5, 6-4. The next night she beat Magdalena Frech 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours and 15 minutes for her first WTA singles title, at 28, and then went back out and won the doubles as well.

Mérida

She came into the WTA 500 unseeded. She beat Donna Vekic in the first round, then Marina Stakusic and 2024 Mérida champion Zeynep Sonmez, all in straight sets, before the Paolini match. Paolini was the No. 1 seed and the world No. 7.

The final turned in the middle. Bucsa took the first set 6-1, then trailed 0-3 in the second, according to AFP, and lost it before winning the decider. “We gave all our best, and here we demonstrated how tough we are,” she said to Frech at the trophy presentation. It was her first singles title at any level since the WTA 125 in Limoges in 2023. In the doubles final she partnered Jiang Xinyu.

From Chișinău to Cantabria

Bucsa was born in Chișinău, Moldova, on 1 January 1998, and lives and trains in Cantabria in northern Spain, according to the WTA. She represents Spain and is coached by her father, Ion Bucsa. She won her first ITF title at a W15 event in Santarém, Portugal, in 2017.

Her first trip to Wimbledon, for qualifying in 2019, began without the right shoes. She told the WTA she had ordered grass-court shoes online, “but when I arrived home, I just received a pair of glasses.” The only pair she could find near the grounds were two sizes too big. She stuffed them with extra socks and came back from a set down to beat Whitney Osuigwe 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 at Roehampton.

Her Grand Slam main-draw debut came at the 2021 US Open, as a qualifier. In 2023 she qualified for the Australian Open and reached the third round, where she lost to Iga Swiatek, and later that year she beat Belinda Bencic in Cincinnati for her first Top 20 win.

The doubles player

Doubles made her name first. At the 2024 Paris Olympics she and Sara Sorribes Tormo won the bronze medal. That season she won four tour doubles titles, including the WTA 1000 in Madrid with Sorribes Tormo. She has nine tour-level doubles titles in all, the most recent in Guadalajara this month with Nicole Melichar-Martinez, and is ranked No. 14 in doubles. For how the format differs, see How Tennis Doubles Works.

The singles breakthrough

The singles results caught up in 2025. At Wimbledon she beat No. 22 seed Donna Vekic 6-1, 6-3 in 70 minutes to reach the third round for the first time, then lost to lucky loser Solana Sierra 7-5, 1-6, 6-1. At the US Open she beat Claire Liu, Alexandra Eala 6-4, 6-3 and No. 19 seed Elise Mertens 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second week of a major for the first time. Against Mertens she was a set and 4-2 down in the second when, per the WTA, she won 11 points in a row. Aryna Sabalenka, the eventual champion, stopped her in the fourth round.

Late in 2025 she reached her first tour-level final, in Hong Kong, losing to Victoria Mboko, and finished the year at a career-high No. 54. The Mérida title in 2026 pushed her higher still, to a career-high No. 30.

Grand Slam best results

  • Australian Open: third round (2023, as a qualifier)
  • Roland Garros: second round (2024)
  • Wimbledon: third round (2025)
  • US Open: fourth round (2025)

Career singles titles: one — Mérida, 2026. Olympic Games: doubles bronze, Paris 2024, with Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Season Snapshot — 24 September 2026

Doubles ranking: No. 14, per the WTA. Singles: career high No. 30, reached this season; her current singles ranking is not listed because it could not be confirmed from a primary source. Coach: Ion Bucsa.

Her 2026 season includes the Mérida singles and doubles titles, doubles finals in Brisbane and Rome, and the Guadalajara doubles title with a singles semifinal there. She lost to Maja Chwalinska in Cincinnati.

This week she is in Shenzhen for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. In Spain’s quarterfinal against Kazakhstan on Wednesday she lost her singles to Yulia Putintseva, then partnered Sorribes Tormo in the deciding doubles and won 6-2, 7-5, saving 18 of the 20 break points they faced, according to AP. The win put Spain into its first Billie Jean King Cup semifinal in 18 years, against Czechia.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.

More: Bucsa wins her first singles crown in Mexico, How Billie Jean King Cup Works, Olympic Tennis Explained, and the full ATP and WTA player index.

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