Upset artist: Kalinskaya beats Pegula for latest Top 3 win
Anna Kalinskaya View Profile capped off Wednesday's play at the Internationaux de Strasbourg with an upset. The World No. 30 took down No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula View Profile 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in 1 hour and 59 minutes to reach the quarterfinals.
The victory continues a surprising stat for Kalinskaya. She is 12-10 against Top 10 players overall -- but Kalinskaya is now a perfect 4-0 against players ranked inside the Top 3 at the time of their meeting.
Strasbourg: Draws | Scores | Order of play
In her first two meetings with Top 3 players, she defeated No. 3 Coco Gauff View Profile and No. 1 Iga Swiatek View Profile en route to the 2024 Dubai final. She suffered a narrow loss to Jasmine Paolini View Profile in her first career WTA final.
Later that year, she advanced past No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka View Profile via retirement on the grass of Berlin, making her second final. Again, she narrowly lost that final, in a third-set tiebreak after holding five championship points.
Her opponent in that Berlin final? Jessica Pegula View Profile , then ranked World No. 5. That was the second of Kalinskaya's three losses in three meetings with Pegula -- with two in a row coming in third-set tiebreaks.
One of those streaks had to end on Wednesday in Strasbourg. Either Kalinskaya would collect her first win over Pegula in four attempts, or she would lose to a Top 3 player for the first time, as Pegula is back at her career-high No. 3 ranking.
Early on, it looked like it would be the latter. Pegula held a 6-4, 3-1 lead on a blustery day in France. But Kalinskaya stayed sturdy and stole the second set, as drizzle began to fall.
Kalinskaya continued to press in the third set as Pegula's errors mounted in increasingly tricky conditions. Mere moments before heavy rain began, Kalinskaya closed out the win to maintain her undefeated record against the Top 3.
Will Kalinskaya make another final after a Top 3 win, as she has done twice before? She will next face another American in the quarterfinals, Danielle Collins View Profile , who beat Emma Raducanu View Profile on Wednesday.
Kalinskaya will require another head-to-head turnaround if she wants to progress. Collins has won both of their two previous meetings, which were in 2023 on hard court at the Australian Open and Austin.
