World No. 12 Anna Kalinskaya hung by a thread during her opening match at the WTA 500 tournament in Ningbo but ultimately managed to avoid a shock defeat to a lucky loser.
The Russian, seeded at No. 7, found herself down by a set and a break to world No. 225 Priscilla Hon, who lost in the qualifying final round a day earlier but still made the main draw as a lucky loser.
While the seventh seed bounced back to win the second set, she was also in big danger of losing the match in three sets. Fortunately for Kalinskaya, she was able to step up when needed the most and edge out Hon 3-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 18 minutes of play.
It should be noted that early in the second set, the 25-year-old received a medical timeout for what appeared to be a thigh or waist issue.
In the Ningbo round-of-16, she will play against either Ajla Tomljanovic or Yuan Yue.
How Kalinskaya survived the Hon challenge?
After losing the opening two games of the match, the Russian responded with back-to-back breaks and taking a 3-2 lead. But then, the Australian lucky loser claimed back-to-back breaks on her own and won the next four games to bag the first set.
At the start of the second set, Hon earned an early break to open a 2-0 lead and…
