WTA Dubai: Final! After Gauff, Kalinskaya also cleans Swiatek
Anna Kalinskaya sensationally reached the final of the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Dubai. The Russian clearly beat world number one Iga Swiatek in two sets and will face Jasmine Paolini tomorrow.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Feb 23, 2024, 06:10 pm
What a week for Anna Kalinskaya! The Russian got into the main draw of the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Dubai through qualification - and is now in the final after a 6:4 and 6:4 against Iga Swiatek. Kalinskaya will meet Jasmine Paolini there tomorrow, who won against Sorana Cirstea 6:2 and 7:6 (6).
Swiatek is already the third top ten player to defeat Anna Kalinskaya in Dubai. She had previously achieved this against Jelena Ostapenko and yesterday in the quarterfinals against Coco Gauff. After Swiatek took a 4-2 lead in the first round, Kalinskaya won six games in a row. And that with powerful, straightforward tennis. However, when the score was 5:2 in the second act, the outsider missed her first two match points and Swiatek managed another break.
A few moments later, Iga Swiatek even had the chance to equalize, but narrowly missed a forehand. And Anna Kalinskaya took advantage of her third opportunity to reach her first final on the WTA tour. And that's just for a 1000.
Paolini, on the other hand, showed nerves in the second set against Cirstea. The Italian was already leading 4-2 and then had to parry six set points from the Romanian. Cirstea made an epic comeback against Marketa Vondrousova yesterday, fending off six match points.