Anna Sergeyevna Danilina (russian: Анна Сергеевна Данилина; born 20 August 1995) is a Russian-born Kazakh

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player. She has been

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

as high as No. 11 in doubles by the

Women's Tennis Association The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) is the principal organizing body of women's professional tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women and was founded to create a better future for women's tenni ...

(WTA). In singles, she reached a career-high ranking of 269. Danilina represented her nation of birth,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, until March 2011, when she switched allegiances to represent

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. As a junior, she reached a combined world ranking of No. 3 in February 2013. Since turning professional, Danilina has won three WTA doubles titles. She has also won one singles title and 25 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. Along with

Beatriz Haddad Maia Beatriz Haddad Maia (born 30 May 1996) is a Brazilian professional tennis player. On 22 August 2022, she reached a career-high in the WTA rankings in singles at No. 15. Haddad Maia has won two singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour, on ...

, Danilina attained her

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

doubles breakthrough, reaching the women's doubles final of the

2022 Australian Open The 2022 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, Australia from 17 to 30 January 2022. It was the 110th edition of the Australian Open, the 54th in the Open Era, and the first Grand Slam of the ye ...

Junior career

Junior Grand Slam performance

Singles: * Australian Open: 3R (2013) * French Open: 2R (2012, 2013) * Wimbledon: 2R (2012) * US Open: QF (2012) Doubles: * Australian Open: SF (2013) * French Open: QF (2012) * Wimbledon: QF (2012) * US Open: SF (2012)

College tennis

With the beginning of her professional career hampered by injuries, in 2015 Danilina decided to attend an American university so she could study and play

college tennis The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is the governing body and coaches association of college tennis, both an advocate and authority, overseeing men’s and women’s varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NC ...

. Danilina went to

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, graduating in 2018 with a degree in Economics. As part of the

Florida Gators women's tennis The Florida Gators women's tennis team represents the University of Florida in the sport of tennis. The Gators compete in Division I (NCAA), Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC) ...

team, she won the 2017 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships.

Tennis career

2018

Partnering

Berfu Cengiz Berfu Cengiz (born 18 October 1999) is a Turkish tennis player. She has a career-high WTA rankings The WTA rankings are the ratings defined by the Women's Tennis Association, introduced in November 1975. Iga Świątek is the current world N ...

, she won her first $80k tournament in July 2018 at the

President's Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

, defeating

Akgul Amanmuradova Akgul Charievna Amanmuradova ( uz, Oqgul Omonmurodova; born June 23, 1984) is a professional tennis player from Uzbekistan. At 1.90 metres in height, she is one of the tallest female tennis players in history. Amanmuradova has won two d ...

and

Ekaterine Gorgodze Ekaterine Gorgodze ( ka, ეკატერინე გორგოძე, tr, ; born 3 December 1991) is a Georgian professional tennis player. Gorgodze has won two doubles titles on the WTA Tour and also four doubles titles on the WTA Challe ...

in the final.

2021: First WTA title and top 100 debut in doubles, Grand Slam and WTA 1000 debut

At the Poland Open held in Gdynia, Danilina reached the final and won her first WTA doubles title, partnering with

Lidziya Marozava Lidziya Marozava ( be, Лідзія Аляксандраўна Марозава, russian: Лидия Александровна Морозова, ''Lidiya Aleksandrovna Morozova''; born 8 October 1992) is a professional tennis player from Belaru ...

. As a result she made her top 100 debut in doubles at world No. 96, on 26 July 2021. Afterwards she made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open, partnering

Yaroslava Shvedova Yaroslava Vyacheslavovna Shvedova (; born 12 September 1987) is a Kazakhstani former professional tennis player. Before 2008, she represented her country of birth, Russia. She won one singles title and 13 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, plus o ...

2022: Historic Australian Open final & top 15 in doubles & WTA Finals debut

Danilina was playing an ITF tournament in Monastir, Tunisia, when

invited her to serve as her partner in the

, following an injury to

Nadia Podoroska Nadia Natacha Podoroska (; born 10 February 1997) is an Argentine professional tennis player. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Podoroska has won one doubles title on the WTA Tour, along with 14 singles titles and seven doubles titles on ...

. The team proved to work as they won the warm-up event

Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament i ...

. At major-level, Danilina became the first Kazakh woman to reach the final of the Australian Open after upsetting No. 2 seeds

Shuko Aoyama is a Japanese tennis player. Aoyama became a professional tennis player after graduating from Waseda University. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 182, on 9 February 2015, and a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 4, ...

and

Ena Shibahara is an American-born Japanese professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. She won her first Grand Slam title at the 2022 French Open alongside Wesley Koolhof in mixed doubles, and also reached the women's doubles semifinals at the 20 ...

in the semifinal. Danilina and Haddad Maia won the first set against

Barbora Krejčíková Barbora Krejčíková (; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2, achieved on 28 February 2022, and on 22 October 2018, she became List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles ten ...

and

Kateřina Siniaková Kateřina Siniaková (; ; born 10 May 1996) is a Czech professional tennis player who is the current world No. 1 in doubles. She is a six-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2018 and 2021 French Opens, 2018 and 2022 Wimbled ...

, but following a comeback from the Czech duo lost the final. However, with this performance, Danilina made her top-25 debut in the WTA doubles rankings, and on 28 February 2022, she reached top 20. Danilina and Haddad appeared in most major tournaments afterwards, but did not go further than the second round, including at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...

. She still got to two ITF titles in-between,

Biarritz Biarritz ( , , , ; Basque also ; oc, Biàrritz ) is a city on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the French Basque Country in southwestern France. It is located from the border with Spain. ...

partnering

Valeriya Strakhova Valeriya Mykhaylivna Strakhova ( uk, Валерія Михайлівна Страхова; born 9 June 1995) is a Ukrainian tennis player. Career On 1 February 2016, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 231. On 11 July 2022, s ...

, and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, with Anastasia Tikhonova. She declined to appear at

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

once the tournament was stripped of its ranking points for banning Russians and Belarusians. Afterwards, she won the Poland Open for the second time partnering

Anna-Lena Friedsam Anna-Lena Friedsam (born 1 February 1994) is a German tennis player. She has won three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, one WTA 125 singles title as well as 12 singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit in her career. She played also ...

, and reached the final of the

Cleveland Open The Cleveland Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It was played from 1963 to 1972 at a various courses in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. Host courses Winners See also * DAP Championship, a Web.com Tour Finals event in the Cleveland ...

with

Aleksandra Krunic Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pro ...

, while also reaching the quarterfinals of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and the US Open alongside Haddad. At the WTA 1000 in Guadajalara, Danilina and Haddad Maia reached the final in a rematch with Krejčíková and Siniaková. With that, she became the first Kazakh woman since

in 2016 to qualify for the

WTA Finals The WTA Finals (formerly known as the WTA Tour Championships or WTA Championships) is a tournament of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) played annually at the end of the season. The event is uniquely reserved for players at the top of the WTA ...

. Thanks to this result, she also entered the world's top 15 in doubles for the first time.

Performance timeline

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

Doubles

''Current through the 2022 Guadalajara Open.''

Significant finals

Grand Slam tournament finals

Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA 1000 finals

Doubles: 1 (runner-up)

WTA career finals

Doubles: 6 (3 titles, 3 runner-ups)

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 6 (1 title, 5 runner–ups)

Doubles: 37 (26 titles, 11 runner–ups)

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Danilina, Anna 1995 births Living people Tennis players from Moscow Russian female tennis players Kazakhstani female tennis players Russian emigrants to Kazakhstan Naturalised citizens of Kazakhstan Naturalised tennis players Kazakhstani people of Russian descent Tennis players at the 2018 Asian Games Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in tennis Asian Games bronze medalists for Kazakhstan Florida Gators women's tennis players