Kalinina in the final in Rome: the story of the Ukrainian tennis player between tournaments and war
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Until two seasons ago she wasn’t even among the top 150 tennis players in the world and, for over a year, she has seen her life totally turned upside down by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Now Anhelina Kalinina, the 26-year-old Ukrainian tennis player from Nova Kachovka, becomes the first finalist of the women’s Italian Internationals: first time ever for her in a WTA 1000 tournament. She prevailed over the Russian Veronika Kudermetova, number 11 of the Roman tournament in three sets with the score 7-5, 5-7, 6-2. Now in the final Kalinina, who didn’t shake hands with her rival at the end of the match, will face the winner of tonight’s match between Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina..
His entry onto the tennis scene has been sudden, when fast in recent months. She landed in Rome as number.47 in the ranking and thirtieth seed. And she surprised everyone. In the previous rounds, before overcoming Russian Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinals, she beat American Madison Keys (seeded number 19) in the round of 16 and Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (seeded number 12).
Refugee parents in Kiev
Tennis has become, as well as a way to redeem himself, also a tool to communicate to the world the harmful consequences on civilians of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which completely changed his life, as Kalinina has said several times: after the beginning of the war, his parents – whose house had been totally destroyed by the bombings – took refuge in Kiev. The rest of her family instead found themselves in one of the areas conquered by Russia.
A new home
The Ukrainian tennis player has used the prize won at Wimbledon (where she was eliminated in the second round) to build a new home for her parents, who have been forced to temporarily move into the apartment where she and her husband live when they are not around the world for tournaments. « Their new house is being rebuilt and they cannot live there yet. I am still grateful for the opportunity to help them and because they are lucky to still be alive,” she said. The Ukrainian tennis player is coached by her husband Anton Korchevskyi, a former player who had to interrupt her career due to a back injury.
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