🎾 Charleston WTA: Kalinina vs McNally

🎾 Charleston WTA: Kalinina vs McNally

🧠 Form & Context

🟨 Anhelina Kalinina

• 📉 Patchy form: One win in her last five tournaments; six first-round losses in last eight.
• 🌟 Some success in 2025: Semifinal in Brisbane and QF in Cluj-Napoca earlier in the season.
• 🇺🇦 Charleston regular: Playing here since ITF days; QF in 2022 (beat Rybakina), R3 in 2024 (beat Wozniacki).

🟥 Caty McNally

• 🩼 Long road back: Missed much of 2023 and 2024 with injuries; slowly rebuilding.
• 🏆 Signs of life: Won W50 Tampa and made the semifinals at W50 Springs on clay since return.
• 📉 Recent WTA result: First-round exit to Tomova in Miami.
• 🎾 Charleston record: Fourth main draw appearance; best result was R3 in 2021.

🔍 Match Breakdown

Kalinina comes in with more recent top-level match exposure, though her form remains inconsistent. McNally has momentum from her qualifying wins and clay-court confidence after lower-level success in March.

The Ukrainian's heavy baseline game can be a challenge on green clay, especially if she controls tempo early. McNally will look to use her all-court variety and serve-volley instincts to mix things up and keep Kalinina off-balance.

While Kalinina leads their H2H from a five-year-old indoor match, both players are in very different stages of their careers now.

🔮 Prediction

Pick: Kalinina in 3 sets

This could be tighter than rankings suggest. Kalinina’s Charleston experience and baseline consistency may give her a slight edge, but McNally is trending upward and could turn this into a battle if she gets into rhythm early.