In the unpredictable theater of professional tennis, drama doesn’t end at match point. Jannik Sinner, the 2024 US Open champion and current poster boy for Italian tennis, recently confirmed that he has split from Russian WTA star Anna Kalinskaya—his high-profile girlfriend of just over a year. But what seemed like a golden couple on court now looks more like a PR illusion gone sour, leaving fans asking: was it all for show?
The pair first sent shockwaves through the tennis world in early 2024, when Sinner openly declared, during the French Open, that he was in a relationship with Kalinskaya—herself a top-tier player with a career-high WTA ranking of No. 14. It was a rare move for Sinner, notoriously private about his personal life. “Yes, I’m with Anna,” he admitted then, before adding a cryptic disclaimer: “We like to keep things confidential.”
Yet what followed was anything but quiet. Kalinskaya was courtside during Sinner’s most important moments—hugging him after victories, even sealing his US Open title win with a very public kiss. The tennis world couldn’t get enough of their joint appearances at Grand Slams. For a while, it seemed like they were tennis’s new power couple.
But by spring 2025, things started unraveling behind the scenes. Fans noticed the subtle digital clues—Anna was no longer showing up at his matches, and the couple had unfollowed each other on Instagram. The speculation turned into confirmation at the Italian Open, when Sinner coolly announced in a press conference that he was “currently single.” Just like that, one of the sport’s most talked-about relationships had ended—with no explanation, no drama, just a cold, clinical statement.
The silence is what’s making it all feel so suspicious.
Kalinskaya herself has made no public comments, but her quiet withdrawal from Sinner’s orbit has fueled theories that things were far more turbulent behind closed doors. Was it simply a case of two high-performing athletes struggling to balance romance with rivalry? Or was the romance nothing more than a carefully constructed image to clean up Sinner’s growing media profile post-breakup with model Maria Braccini?
Even more controversial is the timeline. Kalinskaya once dated tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios, while Sinner had only recently ended his long-term relationship with Braccini when he was first spotted with Anna. The tennis world wonders—was Sinner ever emotionally available, or did Anna step into a rebound she mistook for a relationship?
This is no ordinary breakup. It’s one that cracks open the surface of how tennis stars curate their public personas. When relationships become part of a player’s brand, where does authenticity end and strategy begin?
Jannik Sinner is back to being single, and Kalinskaya is back grinding through the WTA tour. But fans—and gossip columns—aren’t letting go that easily. Until someone speaks, this love match will remain one of the sport’s most puzzling breakups.
And the question lingers: did Sinner play Anna as brilliantly as he pla youys his opponents?