As Anna Kalinskaya began to address the Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd in her post-match interview, she was still in a state of disbelief.

Not because she’d made her second career Grand Slam quarterfinal — and first at Roland Garros, having previously won just one main-draw match here — after edging No. 28 seed Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 2-6, 7-6[7], but because the 2-hour, 49-minute rollercoaster had finally ended.

“I’m shocked,” the No. 22 seed said. “I can’t believe the match is over.”

She wasn’t the only one. Kalinskaya, who previously made the last eight of the 2024 Australian Open, came from 4-1 down to win the first set, and overturned a 4-1 deficit in the super-tiebreak. Potapova, who dethroned defending champion Coco Gauff in the previosu round, had also levelled the third set after trailing 4-1, but was unable to serve the match out twice at 5-4 and 6-5.

Kalinskaya advances to just the fifth clay-court quarterfinal of her career, and second on red clay following Strasbourg 2025. She improves to 3-0 overall against Potapova, and will face either home hope Diane Parry or qualifier Maja Chwalinska as she bids to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.

“A really long fight from both of us ’til the last seconds,” Kalinskaya said. “I’ve played her many times, but this one was definitely special. She improved a lot, so today was super challenging.”

“I was a little bit like, whatever”

Over the course of a nervy, gruelling affair decided more by unforced errors (Kalinskaya committed 58 and Potapova 49) than winners (32 each), both players could have been forgiven for feeling slightly over it in some of its tougher patches.

It turns out that was the key for Kalinskaya.

“I don’t have any nerves any more whatsoever,” she said when asked about Potapova serving for the match twice. “I was hoping to stay focused, and things didn’t work. So I was a little bit like, whatever.

“So I could relax a little bit and get the rhythm, focus on my breathing and try to break her. I’m super happy I could do it.”

Throughout the match, Potapova — who was bidding to become the first Austrian quarterfinalist at Roland Garros since Barbara Schwartz and Sylvia Plischke in 1999 — consistently lapsed into error when in front. In the first set, she captured a double-break lead with a superb forehand winner down the line, only for that wing to immediately go awry as she conceded five straight games. In the final game, Potapova sent forehands long and into the net, before shanking a backhand to go down set point — lost with a netted backhand.

In the final set, consecutive double faults put Potapova down 3-1, before she roared back with some of her best tennis of the day. But the errors off both wings recurred again as she failed to serve out the win at 5-4.

Though Kalinskaya was beset by errors as well, the 27-year-old was also able to raise her game when opportunities presented themselves. She ended a key eight-deuce tussle to hold for 2-1 in the decider with a forehand winner, and forced a tiebreak with another. The second half of the tiebreak also saw Kalinskaya seize control with aggressive tennis, boldly taking the ball out of the air for drive volley winners as she took nine of the last 12 points.

It’s not the first time Kalinskaya has won a wild marathon encounter in this year’s clay-court swing. In the Rome second round, she fended off a remarkable nine match points to defeat Katerina Siniakova 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 — the most any player has saved en route to a tour-level victory in 2026 so far.

Kalinskaya saves nine match points to escape Siniakova in Rome second round

More to come…