The third round of the 2026 US Open delivered one of the tournament's biggest surprises: Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina, ranked high in the world, unexpectedly lost to Anna Kalinská. The match, which lasted 1 hour and 53 minutes, ended 3:6, 6:2, 3:6 in her opponent's favor. For Svitolina, the defeat was a regrettable one: she had chances to push on, but was unable to capitalize on them because of systemic problems on serve.
Match progression: a critical first serve
The key issue for the Ukrainian throughout the encounter was her first serve — by the end of the match, her accuracy stood at just 49%. This was most acute in the first set, where Svitolina held only one of her service games and dropped the set 3:6. The picture changed in the second set: pressure from the Ukrainian combined with Kalinská's own errors allowed Svitolina to take the set 6:2. She also started the third set well, but the serving problem returned, and in the end it was Kalinská who celebrated the win.
Head-to-head history and statistics
This was the sixth meeting between Svitolina and Kalinská in their professional careers. As of the day of the match, the Ukrainian had four wins in these duels, and today's defeat brought the head-to-head tally to 4:2. Thus, despite the setback, Svitolina retains the statistical edge in the rivalry, but it was precisely this match that stood in her way of reaching the quarterfinals.
2026 season context and US Open results
In the current season, Svitolina has played 15 matches at Grand Slam tournaments, winning 11 of them. Her best results of 2026 were a semifinal at the Australian Open and a quarterfinal at Roland Garros, while at Wimbledon the Ukrainian was stopped already in the first round. At the US Open, her best achievement remains the 2019 semifinal; last year she did not get past the first round, and the last time she advanced beyond the third round was in 2021, when she reached the quarterfinals. In this way, today's defeat ended her attempt to replicate her 2021 result.
Contradictory data
Upon checking the sources, minor discrepancies in the presentation of facts were found. First, the wording about the head-to-head record ("as of today, the Ukrainian has four wins to her name") can be interpreted in two ways: some readers may take it as the score before the match, whereas in fact it refers to the final balance after today's defeat. Second, in different materials Svitolina's opponent is attributed differently — in one context she is called a "Russian," in another a "neutral" athlete, which reflects differences in the editorial policies of the publications rather than an actual discrepancy in the match outcome. The result itself (3:6, 6:2, 3:6) and the duration of the encounter (1 hr 53 min) are confirmed by several independent sources without contradiction.
Against the backdrop of this defeat, it is worth noting a positive piece of news for Ukrainian tennis: Marta Kostyuk effectively beat Alexandrova and advanced to the round of 16 at US Open 2026, thereby preserving hopes for a successful showing by the country at the tournament. Final score of the Svitolina — Kalinská match: 3:6, 6:2, 3:6.
