Kalinina on the brink of Top 50 after winning W60 Nantes
Anhelina Kalinina continued her standout 2021 season by claiming her fifth title of the year on the ITF World Tennis Tour at W60 Nantes on Sunday.
The 24-year-old Ukrainian, who broke into the WTA Top 100 in July, now stands on the brink of a place in the Top 50 after her week in France saw her climb five spots to a career-high No. 52 in the world.
Kalinina’s triumph was her third W60 crown of the season and fifth title since April – adding to wins at W25 Oeiras, W60 Zagreb, W60 Montpellier and W100 Contrexeville – and came after opponent Oceane Dodin retired due to injury with Kalinina leading 7-6(4) 1-0.
Back in May, Kalinina told itftennis.com how a grant of $25,000 from the Grand Slam Development Fund in 2020 (intended to help with her competition-related costs) gave her “opportunity” during a tough time for the tennis world.
With international travel largely curtailed at the peak of the pandemic, Kalinina was able to continue to develop her fitness and hone her craft – rather than put her tennis career on hold.
“[Having the grant to rely on] was a huge help because I was able to stay in the process,” she admitted back then (you can read the interview from May in full here).
Kalinina hasn’t just stayed in the process – she has sky-rocketed up the rankings, leaping from No. 163 at the turn of the year to her newfound position at No. 52.
Elsewhere on the ITF World Tennis Tour last week, there were also W25 wins for former junior standouts Emma Navarro, 20, and Katie Swan, 22.
Former girl’s world No. 3 Navarro collected her first ITF singles title at W25 Orlando after defeating fellow American Allie Kiick 3-6 6-2 6-3, while Swan – who reached a career-high of No. 2 in her junior days – won her ninth ITF singles crown and her second of the year.
Swan's triumph was her last alongside Spanish coach Esteban Carril, who is reportedly set to join Andy Murray's coaching team.
Six players also won titles at W15 level over the weekend – Alicia Smith (AUS), Juliea Riera (ARG), Zongyu Li (CHN), Anna Gabric (GER), Yexin Ma (CHN) and Celia Cervino Ruiz (ESP).
The action continues on the ITF World Tennis Tour this week with nine women’s tournaments taking place, headlined by the W60+H Santiago clay court event in Chile. Follow all the latest here.