After boyfriend Jannik Sinner, Anna Kalinskaya also suffers bad luck

07/27/2024 12:00 AM

Anna Kalinskaya seemingly still hasn't recovered from her wrist injury as the Russian tennis star is forced to withdraw from the Citi Open in Washington, which was supposed to be her first tournament of the North American hard-court swing. 

After making appearances in Washington in 2019 and 2022, 25-year-old Kalinskaya also signed up to play at the American WTA 500 tournament this year. But after retiring injured at Wimbledon, the Russian waited until the last moment to see if she could play in Washington - but ended up retiring just two days before the draw and the start of the tournament. 

Just two days earlier, Kalinskaya's boyfriend and ATP world No. 1 Jannik Sinner also pulled out of the Paris Olympics due to tonsilitis. 

In the past, Kalinskaya did well in each of her two Washington appearances. In her tournament debut in 2019, Kalinskaya made the semifinal as a qualifier before she also reached the quarterfinal in her second appearance two years ago.

Anna Kalinskaya has withdrawn from the women's singles draw due to injury. Taylor Townsend has now moved into the main draw.#MubadalaCitiDCOpen

— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) July 26, 2024

Playing in her first Wimbledon round-of-16, Kalinskaya made a good start and opened a 3-1 lead against world No. 4 Elena Rybakina. But then, Kalinskaya started dealing with a wrist issue and required a medical time out. After losing eight consecutive games and after Rybakina went 6-3 3-0 up, the Russian decided to retire the match.

“It was affecting me a lot. My serve and the first ball, after the serve, because I was feeling a bit numb. It affected me quite a lot. I thought it would go away but it didn’t. So I decided to stop because I wasn’t feeling any better," Kalinskaya said after the match.

Now that Kalinskaya is out of Washington, the hope remains that she will at least be ready for WTA 1000 tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati.