Anhelina Kalinina is on a roll: 13 wins in her last 14 matches, two titles - including the biggest of her career to date - and a general feeling that she has found her groove on clay.

Like her full name (which is satisfyingly rhythmic to voice aloud), Kalinina’s current game is especially fluent – something she’s determined to capitalise on after a year that was anything but.

On the verge of a place in the Top 100 in 2019, the 24-year-old Ukrainian had drifted away from the WTA’s elite group before the pandemic-led suspension of professional tennis last year, and the disruption significantly affected her plans to regain ground.

Kalinina played 12 tournaments in 2020 and recorded just 11 wins – a tally that she has surpassed in the last month alone on the ITF World Tennis Tour. She reached the semi-finals at W60 Oeiras before winning a W25 title at the same venue the following week, and then claimed her most significant triumph yet on Croatian soil at W60 Zagreb.

“I’m happy that I was able to play almost three weeks in a row,” reflected Kalinina. “It was good to be able to keep this quality of tennis. I think the previous year I was almost out of matches, like many other players. I didn’t really win a lot and I didn’t play a lot, so I was really happy with this run. The more matches I had, the better I played.”

With 11 of her 12 professional titles coming on clay, it is a wonder that Kalinina says she prefers hard courts, but there’s a dawning realisation that she can be particularly potent on the dirt – especially with Roland Garros looming.

Thoughts of Grand Slam success can wait though. For now, Kalinina is back home in Kiev, tending to a back issue triggered by her high workload over the past month. Though tempted to play on while in such a rich vein of form, the world No. 141 is reaping the benefits of some rest, recuperation and home comforts.

“I’m tired physically I think, but mentally I was there. I wanted to play next week, but my family said you need to stop a bit to recover,” she admitted.

“When I come home, I want to just spend time with the family and rest. It’s not like I do anything special – I just spend time with my animals. My mum has three dogs and three cats, so we have a very, very big zoo! I enjoy this time a lot. I love my animals. I could spend a lot of time with them – that and walking and seeing my friends. It’s something special to stay at home and see them.”

Being able to switch off from the sport for a spell is a luxury that Kalinina may not have been fortunate enough to enjoy were she not given a financial boost in 2020 to assist with her competition-related costs.

One of 23 players to receive a $25,000 Grand Slam Player Grant in 2020, financed by the Grand Slam Development Fund, Kalinina – who has notched Top-50 wins over Katerina Siniakova and Danielle Collins – was selected for her exceptional potential.

And the timing couldn’t have been better, given all that was to transpire in 2020.

“The past year was challenging for the whole world, for tennis players, for the tennis world… but this grant gave me opportunity,” acknowledged Kalinina. “It allowed me to prepare for tournaments. Even if the world stopped, I was able to put this money to my process, to keep going, to keep training with a fitness trainer every day. You can’t just stop playing tennis and then when everything becomes normal play like you did before.

“A lot of months we were not earning money, we were not working and it was a difficult time for everyone. [Having the grant to rely on] was a huge help because I was able to stay in the process.

“When you know that you can continue to do your job, to do what you love most in life, you can really improve yourself, without stopping and thinking ‘oh my god, what am I going to do tomorrow? I have to pay for the coach, I have to pay for the physical trainer, I have to pay for the court’. The money helps so much, mentally.”

Kalinina is coached by her husband Anton Korchevskyi, a talented former junior player whose professional aspirations were curtailed following a back operation, but she has long been aware of the expense associated with climbing the ranks in the sport.

As a junior, she was selected to participate in GSDF Touring Teams at under 14 and under 16 level that allowed her to test herself against the best young players in the world. Those memories - and the successes that followed - remain sweet.

“We played all the top tournaments – Grade 1s in Italy, Belgium, Roehampton, Wimbledon and the French Open and it really helped because my family didn’t have the money to travel that much,” she said. “I can’t imagine how much it would have cost – well, now I can! – but in juniors you don’t make money. You’re just playing for points and experience. It helped me so much and I got my ranking into the Top 10 by the end.”

Kalinina made it as high as No. 8 in the world junior rankings in 2014 and notched girls' doubles triumphs at the Australian Open and the Youth Olympic Games. She also finished runner-up in the girls’ singles at the US Open and girls’ doubles at Wimbledon.

Those successes, she feels, wouldn’t have been possible without the hugely rewarding opportunity to travel on those GSDF Touring Teams.

“I improved my ranking and my tennis, and it was a great experience with the coaches,” she said. “I had Roberta Burzagli and Dermot Sweeney in my team - great coaches and I’m still in a very friendly mode with them. We became like family. I had really great results and these coaches helped me so much. I improved my game because of these people – they gave me a lot of different details that I can improve.”

Kalinina appears to be driven by a desire to be as good as she can be – whatever that may look like. Tennis provides her with the perfect outlet for that goal, even amongst a sea of others with similar ambitions.

“I love to compete,” she admits. “I like that I have new challenges almost every week. All the players are playing super great, but still… if you love what you do, you can be around the best.

“I like this atmosphere of competition, I like to compete and I like to achieve something new, to go up the rankings. Everything I do, when I play, I do for myself. Sometimes it’s stressful, we travel so much, we have really crazy, difficult matches sometimes. But I like this feeling. I love everything about this [sport].”

The upper levels of tennis might be crowded with hard-working players, but a problem-solver with a thirst for the battle and a game for all surfaces?

There’s plenty of room for that.