Elena Rybakina reaches third Wimbledon quarterfinal, overcomes injured rival Anna Kalinskaya

Elena Rybakina returned to the last eight at Wimbledon for a third straight year, the 2022 champion outlasting an injured Anna Kalinskaya, 6-3, 3-0 retired, due to a wrist injury.

"Definitely not how I wanted to finish the match," Rybakina said on court. "Anna, she's a great player. I know she was suffering with a couple of injuries and if it's the wrist, it's very difficult to continue to play. So, I just wish her a speedy recovery."

A fourth-round clash with special interest for ATP world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who has been romantically linked with Kalinskaya since the spring, the fourth-seeded Rybakina rose to the challenge of being the highest-ranked woman left in the draw following the weekend exits of top seeds Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff, and was in control when the No. 17 seed Kalinskaya was forced to retire due to injury after just 53 minutes on Centre Court.

Kalinaksya made a bright start, leading Rybakina 3-1 with an early break, but lost eight games in a row following a medical timeout in the middle of the opening set, ultimately pulling the ripcord after falling behind a double-break in the second.

Rybakina and Kalinskaya played their first pro-level match as teenagers in the final of an ITF Pro Circuit in Playford Australia, and have traded wins through their subsequent three meetings for a 2-2 head-to-head; their last match came on clay with Rybakina winning via retirement last year in Rome.

Kalinskaya has made marked improvements since then, reaching her first major quarterfinal at the Australian Open and stunning world No. 1 Iga Swiatek en route to her first WTA 1000 final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. Making her Top 20 debut following a runner-up finish at the ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin last month, the 25-year-old has played remarkably well in only her third main-draw appearance at the All England Club, reaching the second week without dropping a set.

While Kalinskaya has only recently asserted herself among the best in the game, Rybakina has been a known quantity since 2020 when she made a 21-5 start to the season, making the finals in four out of six tournaments, winning one and pushing then-No. 2 Simona Halep to a third-set tiebreaker in the finals of Dubai.

Settling into her position as one to watch, she made her Grand Slam breakthrough two years later at Wimbledon, defeating Halep in the semifinals and rallying from a set down to beat Ons Jabeur for her first major victory. Despite reaching another major final at the following year’s Australian Open, further success at the Slams has been slow in coming, making just two quarterfinals in her last five attempts.

Still, Rybakina has become the clear favorite to win a second Wimbledon title following the many upsets that have occurred on both halves of the draw, and has been rounding into form after losing just one game in her third round against former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki.

Taking on Kalinskaya, she dug out of an early-break deficit and navigated a tense ninth game that played out as the Russian-born Kazakh tried serving for the set. Clinching the game on her serve, she took two more breaks in the second when Kalinskaya decided she could no longer play on, sending the No. 4 seed into the last eight in under an hour.

Awaiting her there will be the winner of the fourth-round clash between 2023 semifinalist Elina Svitolina and China's Wang Xinyu, who knocked out No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula earlier in the tournament.