Anna Sergeyevna Danilina (Russian: Анна Сергеевна Данилина;[1] 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.[2] Since turning professional, Danilina has won five 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.
2021: First WTA Tour title, major and WTA 1000 debuts, top 100[edit]
At the Poland Open held in Gdynia, Danilina reached the final and won her first WTA Tour doubles title, partnering with Lidziya Marozava.[5] 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[edit]
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.[6][7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] She declined to appear at Wimbledon once the tournament was stripped of its ranking points for banning Russians and Belarusians.[11] Afterwards, she won the Poland Open for the second time, partnering Anna-Lena Friedsam,[12] and reached the final of the Cleveland Open with Aleksandra Krunić,[13] while also reaching the quarterfinals of Cincinnati and the US Open alongside Haddad.[14][15]
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.[16][17] Thanks to this result, she also entered the world's top 15 in doubles for the first time.[18][19]
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.[20][21]
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.
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.
^ abThe first Premier 5 event of the year has switched back and forth between the Dubai Tennis Championships and the Qatar Ladies Open since 2009. Dubai was classified as a Premier 5 event from 2009 to 2011 before being succeeded by Doha for the 2012–2014 period. In 2015, Dubai regained its Premier 5 status while Doha was demoted to Premier status. The Premier 5 tournaments were reclassified as WTA 1000 tournaments in 2021.