World number 75 Anna Kalinskaya beat Jasmine Paolini 6-4 6-2 in 1 hour and 17 minutes to reach her first Grand Slam quarter final at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Kalinskaya landed 70% of her first serve points and hit 20 winners to only 13 unforced errors. Paolini produced 17 winners and 33 unforced errors.
Kalinskaya earned the first break of the match in the third game of the opening set to take a 2-1 lead. Paolini broke straight back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Kalinskaya earned three break points in the sixth game of the opening set. Paolini saved the first two break points with her forehand, but Kalinskaya converted her third opportunity. Paolini saved a set point, when she was serving at 5-3 before Kalinskaya served out the first set at 15 in the next game.
Paolini saved a break point in the first game of the second set. The Italian player earned three break points at 0-40 in the second game, but she made three consecutive backhand errors. Kalinskaya held her service game after four deuces to draw level to 1-1. Kalinskaya earned the decisive break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Paolini faced a point to go down a double break in the seventh game. Kalinskaya hit a forehand pass down the line to open up a 5-2 and served out the win on her first match point.
Kalinskaya is a former top 3 junior and claimed the girls’ doubles title at the Australian Open alongside Tereza Mihailikova, but she had never gone beyond the second round in her 13 previous Grand Slam appearances and had never won a main draw match at the Australian Open. She suffered a leg injury at the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome, which sidelined her for three months and she was forced to miss Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Kalinskaya reached her first WTA 125 final in Tampico and won her first WTA 125 title in Midland. She claimed her ninth career top 20 win against Barbora Krejcikova in Adelaide two weeks ago. In the first week of this year’s edition of the Australian Open she beat Katie Volynets and Sloane Stephens in three sets. Kalinskaya recovered from a set down to beat Stephens 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 6-4. In the fourth round Kalinskaya beat Paolini, who had won their previous head-to-head match in Portorose in 2021 en route to her first WTA Tour title.
Kalinskaya reached a career-high of world number 51 in October 2022 and is currently ranked world number 75.
Kalinskaya set up a quarter final against Zheng Qinwen, who beat Oceane Dodin 6-0 6-3.
“It felt amazing to pass two rounds in a Grand Slam tournament, but to win so many matches is something special for sure. I had a tough three rounds, so I can’t be nervous any more”, said Kalinskaya.
Paolini, who is currently ranked world number 31, reached the fourth round after beating Diana Schnaider 6-3 6-4, Tatjana Maria 6-2 6-3 and Anna Blinkova 7-6 (7-1) 6-4.
