Anna Blinkova

Anna Vladimirovna Blinkova (Russian: Анна Владимировна Блинкова, IPA: [ˈanːə blʲɪnˈkovə] ; born 10 September 1998) is a Russian professional tennis player. On 7 August 2023, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 34. On 14 September 2020, she peaked at No. 45 in the WTA doubles rankings. She has won one singles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, one singles and one doubles title each on WTA Challenger Tour, as well as three singles and eleven doubles titles on the ITF Circuit.

Blinkova was runner-up at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships in girls' singles and was ranked the No. 3 junior tennis player in the world in August 2015.

Personal life and background

Anna Vladimirovna Blinkova was born on 10 September 1998 in Moscow to mother Elena and father Vladimir. During childhood, she played both tennis and chess at a high level. Her preferred surface is hardcourt. Her favourite shot is a forehand. She speaks Russian, Slovak, French and English.

Junior career

Blinkova is former junior world No. 3 player. She was runner-up at the 2015 Wimbledon in girls' singles, where she lost to compatriot Sofya Zhuk.

Professional career

2015–17: First steps

Blinkova made her debut at the ITF Circuit at the $10k event in Kantaoui in February 2015. There she won her first ITF doubles title. In January 2016, she won her first ITF singles title at the $10K Stuttgart. In April 2016, she turned pro and made her WTA Tour debut at the Morocco Open, where she was defeated in the first round. In October 2016, she won her first match on the WTA Tour, defeating Anastasija Sevastova in the first round of Kremlin Cup.

In January 2017, she made Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open through qualifying, where she defeated Monica Niculescu in the first round before losing to Karolína Plíšková in the second. At the 2017 Wimbledon and US Open, she also reached main draw, but then lost to Elena Vesnina in the first round of both competition. During the 2017 season, she won two $100k events on the ITF Circuit in doubles event, in Ilkley and St. Petersburg.

2018–19: Major and Premier 5 third round, top 100 in singles and doubles

In February 2018, she reached the third round of the Premier 5 Qatar Open, defeating Elena Vesnina and Kristina Mladenovic, before she lost to world No. 7, Caroline Garcia. In May, she won her first WTA doubles title at the Morocco Open, partnering with Raluca Olaru. Blinkova entered top 100 for the first time in both singles and doubles in 2018.

On her debut at the 2019 French Open as a qualifier, she reached the third round with a win over compatriot Margarita Gasparyan and an upset over 24th seed Caroline Garcia, but then lost to 14th seed Madison Keys.

In August 2019, she reached her first WTA Tour quarterfinal in singles at the Bronx Open, where she lost to Wang Qiang. At the 2019 US Open, she took defending champion and top seed Naomi Osaka to three sets. She followed this with title in New Haven on the WTA Challenger Tour. Nearly after that, she reached the semifinal of the Guangzhou Open, but then lost to Sofia Kenin. In October, she reached another semifinal at the Luxembourg Open, but lost to later champion Jeļena Ostapenko. During the year, she did even better in doubles. In February 2019, she lost alongside Wang Yafan in the doubles final at the Hua Hin Championships. After that, she reached semifinals of the Hungarian Open. In April, she reached another semifinal at the Premier-level Stuttgart Open. She then won $60k, $80k and $100k events, respectively, on the ITF Circuit. In September, she won the WTA Challenger New Haven.

2020: First top-10 win, top 60 debut, US Open doubles semifinal

Blinkova continued to made better results in doubles than singles. Despite not producing good results in singles during the season, Blinkova started year with her first career top 10 win, defeating Belinda Bencic in the first round of the Shenzhen Open. In singles, her best result of the year came at the Italian Open, where she reached the third round, but then lost to world No. 4, Karolína Plíšková. In doubles, her first significant result came in March at the Indian Wells Challenger, where she reached the semifinal. Then, six month absence of the WTA Tour happened due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

When tennis came back in August, she first played at the Lexington Challenger, where she reached the semifinal in doubles alongside Vera Zvonareva. She followed this with quarterfinal of the Cincinnati Open, alongside Veronika Kudermetova. Things then went even better at the US Open, where Blinkova and Kudermetova reached the semifinal. They lost to eventual champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva. In singles, she lost to eventual semifinalist Jennifer Brady in the first round.

Blinkova qualified for the main draw at the Italian Open and defeated Aliona Bolsova in a final-set tiebreak to reach the third round.

2021: Out of top 100

Blinkova started her year with consecutive losses at the Grampians Trophy and the Australian Open, before clinching her first win of the year over former top-ten player Andrea Petkovic in the first round of the Phillip Island Trophy. However, she managed to reach the doubles semifinals of the Gippsland Trophy with Veronika Kudermetova, but lost to Chan Hao-ching/Latisha Chan 9–11 in the match tiebreak. Alongside compatriot Anastasia Potapova, she reached her third WTA doubles final at the Phillip Island Trophy, losing to Ankita Raina and Kamilla Rakhimova.

She reached her first semifinal of the year at the Bol Ladies Open, a WTA 125 event, as the top seed. However, she lost to Jasmine Paolini winning just four games.

At the Wimbledon Championships, Blinkova beat Tímea Babos in the first round before falling to world No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, on centre court.

Blinkova reached the doubles semifinals of the Western & Southern Open with Aliaksandra Sasnovich, defeating top seeds Hsieh Su-wei/Elise Mertens in the second round. She lost in the first round of the US Open to Valentini Grammatikopoulou.

2022: Resurgence, first WTA title, back to top 100

After falling in the opening round of qualifying at the Australian Open to You Xiaodi, Blinkova reached her first singles final since 2019 at the $60k Open Andrézieux-Bouthéon, defeating Océane Dodin for her first top-100 win since August 2021, before losing to Ana Bogdan in the final.

The Russian followed it up with another $60k final at the Open de l'Isère, where she beat the top seed Arantxa Rus before she lost to Katie Boulter in the final.

She won her first WTA Tour-level singles title at the Transylvania Open.

2023: Second French Open third round, first top-5 win, top 35

She defeated Ysaline Bonaventure and fifth seed Caroline Garcia, her first top-5 win, to reach the third round of the French Open for the second time at this major.

2024: Longest tiebreak and third round at Australian Open, first top-3 win

At the Australian Open, she defeated previous year runner-up Elena Rybakina in the longest tiebreak in a singles match at a Grand Slam in the Open Era in the final set of their second-round match. Blinkova won the tiebreak 22–20. She saved six match points before converting on her tenth match point to advance to the third round of this major for the first time. The 42-point match-tiebreak supplanted the 38-point tiebreaks played by Lesia Tsurenko and Ana Bogdan the previous summer at Wimbledon and by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andy Roddick 20-18 at the 2007 Australian Open.

Performance timelines

Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup (Fed Cup), United Cup, Hopman Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records.

Singles

Current through the 2024 French Open.

Doubles

Current through the 2023 Internationaux de Strasbourg.

WTA career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 4 (1 title, 3 runner-ups)

WTA Challenger finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Doubles: 1 (title)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 9 (3 titles, 6 runner–ups)

Doubles: 11 (11 titles)

Junior Grand Slam tournament finals

Girls' singles: 1 (runner–up)

Fed Cup participation

Singles (0–1)

Doubles (2–0)

WTA Tour career earnings

correct as of 15 November 2021

Wins over top-10 players

Notes

References

External links

• Anna Blinkova at the Women's Tennis Association
• Anna Blinkova at the International Tennis Federation
• Anna Blinkova at the Billie Jean King Cup