With a 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Kalinskaya, the Russian qualifier whose electrifying run to the final included wins over Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, Paolini claimed the biggest title of her career. Her only previous tour-level crown came at the Slovenia Open in 2021, a relatively modest WTA 250 event; now she joins Camila Giorgi and Flavia Pennetta as one of only three Italian women to have won a WTA 1000 title. 

Paolini’s success also elevates her to a career-high ranking of No 14, a rise of 10 places on her best previous mark, which she achieved after reaching the fourth round of last month’s Australian Open – where she was defeated by Kalinskaya. 

“It’s unbelievable, I don’t know what to say,” said Paolini. “I lost to her in the Australian Open. I knew she was tough. She was playing really, really well. Honestly, I don’t know how I managed to win the match because she was playing too good at the beginning. 

“I tried to play maybe more on the backhand, tried to push more, to be also more relaxed, to take the ball earlier because if not, she was moving me so much. I was running a lot. But the key I think was to believe that even if I was down, I could turn the match.”

It was a challenge tailor-made for a player who had already recovered from a set and a break down to defeat Haddad Mai, the 11th seed, in the opening round, and saved six set points to foil a second-set comeback from Sorana Cirstea in the semi-finals.

Kalinskaya started in the same dominant form that propelled her to the final, moving inside the baseline, dictating the rallies with her smooth, powerful groundstrokes and feasting on Paolini’s second serve. When the 25-year-old, already a set to the good, rifled a backhand return winner to break at the start of the second set, an advantage she consolidated with ease in the next game, it was hard to see a way back for Paolini. It was at that point that the Italian dug in.

“I think maybe the key game was when I was down 2-0 in the second set,” said Paolini. “I was serving. I said, ‘C’mon, you have to try to play every point, you have to try to do something. Just think about simple things. Try to serve more maybe on the backhand, some more speed on the serve, try to move the ball.’  

“I was just thinking about easy stuff to do on court. It worked pretty well. Then I started badly again in the third set. I have to say, at the end of the match maybe she missed some balls that she never missed all the match. It’s tough. Tennis is tough mentally.”

After coming out on top of a run of three straight breaks of serve at the start of the decider, Kalinskaya appeared to have the match on her racket. But having maintained her advantage all the way to 5-4, the magnitude of the moment finally seemed to catch up with the world No 40, her trademark composure deserting her as she committed four unforced errors in a row. Kalinskaya will nonetheless take plenty away from what has been an unforgettable week.

“The season just started and it’s a great start for me,” said Kalinskaya. “Now I know what I’m capable of, I hope I will keep showing my game”

As for Paolini, gifted a reprieve, she seized her chance gleefully. She too has had a remarkable journey.

“I think every person has her own steps, story,” said Paolini. “I need some more time to believe maybe that I could play at this level, how I did this week. It’s not going to be like this I know every week. It’s tough. It’s the best players in the world. 

“But I’m here enjoying my tennis, enjoying the matches on court. I’m just loving what I do, just trying to live the present, to stay there, to make the best I could do in that moment. I’m really, really happy.”

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“Hi,” she said, greeting a waiting mascot with a warm smile and a friendly wave. “How are you? Excited?”

Taking Kalinskaya’s outstretched hand, the beaming little girl replied that she was indeed excited: her mum and dad were going to see her on television. It was a charming exchange and, behind them, a boy assigned the task of walking on with Iga Swiatek looked on enviously.

It was not that the Polish world No 1 was unfriendly: she said hello, shook the child’s hand. But Swiatek was in match mode – headphones on, attending to her hydration, preparing her walk-on music. On familiar ground – Swiatek was playing her 13th WTA 1000 semi-final, Kalinskaya her first – the top seed was simply taking care of business.

Those moments were nonetheless indicative of the emotional temperature of an evening that would culminate with Kalinskaya, a 25-year-old qualifier ranked 40th in the world, handing Swiatek her first straight-sets defeat in almost a year. Kalinskaya was still smiling and chatting to her young charge as the pair made their way on to court, and nothing that happened in the extraordinary one hour and 41 minutes that followed seemed to alter the unflappable Russian’s mood. In contrast, Swiatek, focused and business-like from the outset, would become increasingly fraught and agitated. 

After the disappointment of an early exit to Linda Noskova at the Australian Open, Swiatek has bounced back strongly over the Middle East swing. But for once, the Pole struggled to bear the weight of expectation lightly; struggled to keep her foot on the accelerator after establishing an early lead; struggled to maintain the steely composure that had carried her to seven straight victories. It resulted in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat, just the second Swiatek has suffered in 27 matches dating back to last October.

Gunning for a second straight WTA 1000 title that, following last week’s triumph at the Qatar Open, would have made her the first player to win the Gulf double since Justine Henin in 2007, Swiatek began the match in dominant form. Dictating from the baseline and forcing the play at the net as she repeatedly drew Kalinskaya wide on the backhand, forcing the qualifier to take one hand off the racket and thereby nullifying one of her chief weapons, the Pole established a 4-2 lead. But the 22-year-old found it increasingly difficult to maintain a balance between power and consistency. As her errors slowly mounted, so too did her irritation.

“I felt like I didn’t have power any more to give even more, which doesn’t happen often,” said Swiatek, who complained of a lack of “energy and intensity”. 

“I just felt out of control a little bit because of that, because usually when I tell myself what to do I can improve my game, but today I was so out of power and tired that I just couldn’t.”

Early in the second set, that lack of control manifested itself in uncharacteristic fashion. Broken in the opening game, Swiatek’s deepening frustration was evident as Kalinskaya served to consolidate her advantage. She looked imploringly to her team after prodding a backhand long, then gestured to them in exasperation after slamming a mighty forehand winner. Nothing seemed to please her – least of all the missed return that followed, an error to which she responded by slamming her racket into the ground in frustration, breaking the frame and receiving a code violation for her troubles.

Through it all, her opponent remained serene. As Swiatek bounded out of her chair at the next changeover, Kalinskaya took her time, quietly composing herself before returning to the fray with a relaxed smile. She seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself – and why not? Having defeated a pair of top-10 players in Jelena Ostapenko and Coco Gauff in the previous two rounds, she had little to lose. Swiatek, meanwhile, had spent much of the previous 24 hours insisting that the outcome of a tournament at which she was the only seeded player remaining was not preordained. 

“In the beginning of the second set I didn’t think too much,” said Kalinskaya. “I just had to play point by point. She’s a great player, so I had to stay calm and just follow the plan that I had in my mind. I had to stay aggressive and keep moving her.”

She succeeded admirably in those aims, coolly absorbing the disappointment of being denied two match points at 5-2 amid a late surge of aggression from Swiatek, then fending off two break points as she again served for victory two games later. On her first match point, Kalinskaya moved forward behind a thumping crosscourt forehand before slamming away a drive volley. Already projected to achieve a new career-high ranking of 24th on Monday, Kalinskaya will break into the top 20 if she can repeat her Australian Open victory over Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in Saturday’s final. 

In the first semi-final, Paolini resisted another extraordinary comeback by Sorana Cirstea to reach her fifth career final 6-2, 7-6 (8-6). Cirstea fought back from a set and 5-1 down to defeat Marketa Vondrousova in the quarter-finals, and threatened to repeat that feat as she set about cancelling out a 5-2 second-set deficit. But Paolini clung on gamely, warding off six set points to join Kalinskaya in reaching a first WTA 1000 final.

“I played already with her two times, she’s playing really well when she’s little bit down in the score,” said Paolini. “She’s trying to hit more winners, to play faster.”

At least she will be well prepared for the final. Nobody at this tournament has played faster than Kalinskaya, whose fearless ball-striking and ability to inject sudden changes of pace has so proved irresistible. Paolini, denied a first grand slam quarter-final by Kalinskaya at the Australian Open, is all too aware of the challenge that awaits.

“If you want to beat her, you have to play deep and try to do not too many mistakes, but also try to hit winners, to hit the ball, to push her away from the court because if not, she’s going to move you,” said the Italian.

Swiatek can attest to the truth of that. It promises to be a fascinating final.

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“Not really,” replied the 24-year-old. “It’s too early to say if it’s a big three, big four. I think some years should pass and we all need to continue playing well.”

Years? A cynic might counter that it has taken less than a week to disprove the notion. 

The Dubai Tennis Championships were billed as the first collision of the world’s top four since the Australian Open; instead, as the business end of the tournament heaves into view, Swiatek is the only seeded player left standing. The Polish top seed defeated Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals, where she will be the lone standard bearer for the world’s top 20 and a red-hot favourite to add a second straight WTA 1000 title to last week’s triumph in Doha. Not that the 22-year-old is not getting carried away. 

“I’m not thinking about winning the title, because I try to do everything step by step,” said Swiatek in her on-court interview. “All these players that are playing this tournament are really great, any of us can win. I try just to stay humble and focused on only the next step, and if by any chance I’m going to win the tournament, it’s going to be just an effect. No point in overanalysing that.” 

Be that as it may, not even Swiatek could deny her prospects looked brighter by the end of a day that, after starting with three of the four reigning grand slam champions in contention, ended in utter carnage.

The exodus was led by Marketa Vondrousova, the Czech seventh seed, who saw six match points come and go as she fell victim to an extraordinary fightback from Sorana Cirstea of Romania. It has been a difficult start to the season for Vondrousova, who struggled with sickness in Australia and arrived in Dubai short of match practice. But for an hour or so, the 24-year-old looked every inch the player who stormed to the Wimbledon title last summer. Mixing heavy groundstrokes with short angles, drop shots and lobs, Vondrousova opened up a 6-2, 5-1 lead. 

The emphatic nature of that scoreline was misleading, however. Cirstea had competed fiercely throughout, her power and athletic defensive play keeping the points close even as her unforced errors stacked up. But with defeat seemingly inevitable, the 33-year-old resolved to go down swinging; if she couldn’t win, the least she could do was entertain the fans who continued to chant her name in loud, chopped syllables. Cirstea saved two match points with aces, another with a winning volley, and forced the play on three others to lay the foundations for what she described as “the biggest comeback of my career”.

“I looked over at the clock and I saw it was only one hour of play,” said Cirstea after completing an improbable 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 victory. “I was having such great support. I said, ‘OK, let’s try to win one more game for the public, make it a little bit longer.’ 

“I think that thing took the pressure away from me. I started to find my game.”

By the time Cirstea was done, another Wimbledon champion had exited the tournament without striking a ball after Rybakina withdrew with a gastrointestinal problem. 

“Unfortunately, I was not feeling well overnight,” announced the fourth-seeded Kazakhstani. “Since I am not feeling 100% ready to compete, I have decided to pull out from my quarter-final match.”

Rybakina’s withdrawal means the event is guaranteed at least one unseeded finalist, with Jasmine Paolini of Italy advancing to face Cirstea in what will be the 28-year-old’s first semi-final appearance at this level. Paolini, ranked four places below the Romanian at No 26, has won both their previous meetings.

Vondrousova was later followed out of the tournament by Coco Gauff, the third seed and US Open champion, who was undone by a free-hitting display from Anna Kalinskaya, a Russian qualifier ranked 40th in the world. Kalinskaya, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko in the previous round, prevailed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 to claim her second victory over a grand slam champion in as many days. The Russian, a straight-sets winner over defied an upper back injury to .

In her first appearance on the tournament’s main court, it took time for Kalinskaya to find her range. A brilliant ball-striker who favours high-risk, high-reward tennis, the 25-year-old was unable to find the right balance in the opening set, committing 11 unforced errors and winning barely a quarter of her second-serve points. She was not helped by an upper back injury that required a medical timeout and briefly seemed serious enough to raise doubts about whether she would continue.

Once she settled, though, Kalinskaya was irresistible, her self-belief evident as she controlled the tempo of the baseline exchanges, drilling her backhand with regal authority in the face of Gauff’s dogged retrieving.

“I started a little bit not so confident,” said Kalinskaya, a surprise quarter-finalist at last month’s Australian Open. “I was getting used to the surface. I didn’t get the chance to play on centre court, I felt the speed of the bounce was a bit different. I couldn’t find my timing.  

“In the second set, I calmed down a little bit more and I played point by point till the end of the match. I could feel the tension till the last point. She kept bringing so many balls back, so I had to stay really patient and decide which ball to go and finish the point.”

Having struggled against Karolina Pliskova in the previous round, where she became embroiled in a protracted dispute with French chair umpire Pierre Bacchi, Gauff’s second defeat in four matches concluded a forgettable Middle East swing for the American world No 3. 

With Sabalenka beaten by Donna Vekic in her opening match on Tuesday, the big four becomes a big one. Swiatek now has seven consecutive straight-set wins under her belt and, unlike her peers, appears to have been largely untroubled by the transition from Doha to Dubai. Her caution is understandable, particularly given the power at Kalinskaya’s disposal, but it is hard not to like the Pole’s chances.

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Zheng, the 12th seed, fought back from a set down against Anna Kalinskaya to reach the last four at Melbourne Park, a 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-1 victory confirming the deepest grand slam run of her career, following last year’s quarter-final finish at the US Open. Long tipped as a future grand slam champion, she will next face Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Linda Noskova, the Czech teenager who stunned top seed Iga Swiatek in the third round.

“I’m so happy right now, really excited,” Zheng enthused in her on-court interview with Jelena Dokic. “It’s the first time for me, I’m really happy to be in the semi-finals, especially with such a good performance.”

That breakthrough, which puts Zheng within two wins of emulating her childhood idol, follows a surprise meeting with Na, who is in town for the legends’ event and greeted her countrywoman with a convivial pat on the derrière as she was performing a television interview. Zheng, who has said she watched the video of Na’s triumph “more than 10 times” as a young girl but had never previously spoken with her, was evidently inspired by the meeting. She has since gone from strength to strength, and next week she will break into the world’s top 10 for the first time – although she was unaware of that impending milestone until informed by Dokic. 

“Thanks for letting me know that,” said Zheng, before showing something of Na’s mischievous wit. “Nobody tells me anything.” 

Zheng’s hopes of earning a place in the pantheon alongside Na seemed to be in jeopardy early on. She struggled to find her first serve and emerged from the opening set with a win rate of just 42% behind the second, enabling Kalinskaya to bounce back immediately from a pair of early breaks. 

“I lost the first set because I got those early breaks [and] then, later on, I’m not able to keep my serve,” said Zheng. “When I lost the first set, directly, I tried to tell myself, ‘Stay focused. Don’t think too much. Just focus right now.’  

“The first set proved thinking too much was not helping, and you can’t play your best tennis there.”

Having wiped the mental slate clean, Zheng was a player transformed in the second set, raising her level on serve and showed greater composure, patience and quality in the baseline exchanges. Those virtues were never more evident than in the eighth game, where she converted the only break point of the set by maintaining line and length until the right ball presented itself, at which point she caught out Kalinskaya with a sudden and forceful change of direction.

A similar play earned Zheng an early break in the decider, this time off a razor-sharp return, and from there her clarity of purpose and clean, early ball-striking became irresistible, belief draining rapidly from the Russian as she struggled with a right hip injury that required a medical timeout.  

Zheng’s progress in Melbourne has echoed that of Na in 2014, big names toppling all around her until she herself finally became the biggest name left standing, at least in the top half of the draw. For Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka then, read Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula now. 

Nor do the similarities end there: just as Na navigated her way to the title without facing any of her top-20 rivals, so Zheng has arrived in the semi-finals without facing anyone ranked higher than Katie Boulter, the British world No 54.

The omens could not be more encouraging as she prepares to face Yastremska, whose fearless run from qualifying to the last four harks back to Emma Raducanu’s extraordinary title win at the 2021 US Open.

“The feeling is just… I can’t explain in words right now, because there are so many inside,” said Zheng. “Happiness. Of course, I’m proud of myself. But, you know, this is just the beginning.”

It just might be.

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