Anna Kalinskaya didn’t hide her disappointment after her promising Wimbledon run ended in a brutal way as the Russian tennis star revealed that she had “a numb” feeling in her wrist and that it was impacting her big time before she decided to retire from her round-of-16 match.
On Monday, No. 17 seed Kalinskaya made a lightning start against Elena Rybakina after breaking to love the fourth-seeded Kazakh in the first game and eventually opening an early 3-1 first-set lead.
But then, Kalinskaya’s level abruptly dropped as Rybakina went on to win 15 consecutive points and also eight games in a row before the Russian retired while 3-6 0-3 down.
After Rybakina overturned an early first-set deficit and went 4-3 up, Kalinskaya received a medical time out. During the time out, the 25-year-old first had her upper body checked before also getting treatment on her wrist.
But sadly for Kalinskaya – even though she managed to continue the match – she was evidently limited and ended up quitting the match after falling down by a set and a double break.
“It was affecting me a lot. My serve and the first ball, after the serve, because I was feeling a bit numb. It affected me quite a lot. I thought it would go away but it didn’t. So I decided to stop because I wasn’t feeling any better,” Kalinskaya said after the match.
For Kalinskaya, this was by far her best-ever Wimbledon run simply because this was the first year in which she managed to make it past the first round at the tournament. Still, the 25-year-old will be leaving Wimbledon with a sour feeling because she believes she could have done a lot more had she stayed healthy.
“it’s very frustrating and very sad. It’s probably my favorite tournament. But I’m a human and I can’t fully control my body. I have to accept it and just find out what’s going on right now and just recover and try to prevent it in the future,” Kalinskaya said.