Anna Danilina

Anna Danilina
Anna Sergeyevna Danilina (born 20 August 1995) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player. She has been ranked as high as No. 10 in doubles by the WTA. In singles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 269. She is a Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, having won the US Open in 2023 together with Harri Heliövaara.
Danilina represented Russia, her nation of birth, until March 2011 when at the age of 15 she switched allegiances to represent Kazakhstan. As a junior, she reached a combined world ranking of No. 3 in February 2013. Since turning professional, Danilina has won four WTA doubles titles and one WTA Challenger doubles title. She has also won one singles title and 27 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. Along with Beatriz Haddad Maia, Danilina attained her Grand Slam doubles breakthrough, reaching the women's doubles final of the 2022 Australian Open.
Junior career
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, Danilina decided in 2015 to attend an American university so she could study and play college tennis. Danilina went to University of Florida, graduating in 2018 with a degree in Economics. As part of the Florida Gators women's tennis team, she won the 2017 NCAA Division I Tennis Championships.
Tennis career
2018
Partnering Berfu Cengiz, she won her first $80k tournament in July 2018 at the President's Cup, defeating Akgul Amanmuradova and Ekaterine Gorgodze in the final.
2021: First WTA Tour title, major and WTA 1000 debuts, top 100
At the Poland Open held in Gdynia, Danilina reached the final and won her first WTA Tour doubles title, partnering with Lidziya Marozava. As a result, she made her top 100 debut in doubles at world No. 96 on 26 July 2021. Afterwards she made her major debut at the US Open, partnering Yaroslava Shvedova.
2022: Historic Australian Open final and top 15 and WTA Finals
Danilina was playing an ITF tournament in Monastir, Tunisia, when Beatriz Haddad Maia invited her to serve as her partner during the 2022 Australian Open, following an injury to Nadia Podoroska. The team proved to work as they won the warm-up event Sydney International. At major-level, Danilina became the first Kazakhstani woman to reach the final, upsetting No. 2 seeds Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the semifinal of the Australian Open. Danilina and Haddad Maia won the first set against Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková, but following a comeback from the Czech duo lost the final. However, with this performance, Danilina made her top-25 debut in the 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. She still got to two ITF titles in-between, Biarritz, partnering Valeriya Strakhova, and Madrid, with Anastasia Tikhonova. She declined to appear at Wimbledon 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, and reached the final of the Cleveland Open with Aleksandra Krunić, while also reaching the quarterfinals of Cincinnati and the US Open alongside Haddad.
At the WTA 1000 in Guadalajara, Danilina and Haddad Maia reached the final in a rematch with Krejčíková and Siniaková. With that, she became the first Kazakhstani woman since Yaroslava Shvedova in 2016 to qualify for the WTA Finals. Thanks to this result, she also entered the world's top 15 in doubles for the first time.
2023: Top 10 and Wimbledon debuts
She reached the top 10 in doubles on 9 January 2023 before the Australian Open.
She made her debut at Wimbledon with Xu Yifan and in mixed doubles with Nicolas Mahut as an alternate pair. At the US Open, she won the mixed doubles with Finn Harri Heliövaara, who she met at the sign-in line and decided to make a pair that wound up winning the entire event at Flushing Meadows.
Performance timelines
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.
Singles
Current through the 2023 French Open.
Doubles
Current through the 2023 US Open.
Significant finals
Grand Slam tournaments
Women's doubles: 1 (runner-up)
Mixed doubles: 1 (title)
WTA 1000 tournaments
Doubles: 1 (runner-up)
WTA Tour career finals
Doubles: 7 (4 titles, 3 runner-ups)
WTA 125 finals
Doubles: 1 (title)
ITF Circuit finals
Singles: 6 (1 title, 5 runner–ups)
Doubles: 38 (27 titles, 11 runner–ups)
Notes
References
External links
1995 births
Living people
Tennis players from Moscow
Russian female tennis players
Kazakhstani female tennis players
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
US Open (tennis) champions
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in mixed doubles