Russian tennis star Anna Kalinskaya is facing a lot of criticism this week for "rude" comments she made during an interview.

Kalinskaya, the No. 32 ranked player in the world, is coming off a pretty successful stretch during the hard-court season. For starters, she made it to the Citi Open final before losing in straight sets to Leylah Fernandez. She also reached the quarterfinals at the Cincinnati Masters. That momentum carried over to the US Open for the first two rounds of the tournament. She defeated Clervie Ngounoue and Yulia Putintseva before falling short to Iga Swiatek 7-6 (2), 6-4.

While there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Kalinskaya's outlook for the rest of the season, tennis fans aren't exactly eager to cheer her on. That's because she threw a men's tennis player under the bus during an interview with the First&Red channel.

Kalinskaya said one of the top players in the world has sent her at least 10 messages on social media.

“Now I’m older. I don’t know, for some, it’s just no chance at all. No need to write. Someone wrote like 10 times and then gave up,” Kalinskaya said.

Kalinskaya then revealed that Holger Rune is the player constantly in her DMs.

“I’ll say it now, but Holger Rune. He writes to everyone,” she continued. “He deserves all this. Thinks too much of himself. But he’s not the only one. A couple [more].”

Tennis fans thought Kalinskaya was out of line for name-dropping Rune.

"I just find it so weird that she shares that to kinda make fun of him?? If he wrote something inappropriate then I would understand, but this?? Idc about him at all, not a fan, but why share that with everyone," one fan asked.

I just find it so weird that she shares that to kinda make fun of him??
If he wrote something inappropriate then I would understand, but this??
Idc about him at all, not a fan, but why share that with everyone. https://t.co/DQy0H0jI3p

— maria in the sky with diamonds (@saltMariaa) September 9, 2025

"I don’t like this to be honest. Writing to someone 10 times is somewhat bad in itself but unless they’ve been rude, aggressive or whatever about it, it doesn’t justify publicly naming and shaming them," a second fan wrote.

I don’t like this to be honest.

Writing to someone 10 times is somewhat bad in itself but unless they’ve been rude, aggressive or whatever about it, it doesn’t justify publicly naming and shaming them.@holgerrune2003, what are you going to do about this? https://t.co/WvM2tYW6hK

— Jason (@Certinfy) September 9, 2025

"Oh well, he might not be particularly clever, but continuing to drag him through the mud over some Instagram messages doesn't seem like more mature behavior to me," another fan commented.

Vabbè lui non sarà particolarmente furbo ma continuare a sputtanarlo per dei messaggi su Instagram non mi sembra un comportamento più maturo https://t.co/EW69PBV7vQ

— Giovane da un po' 💐💌 (@nonsosesipuodir) September 9, 2025

Holger Rune breaks his silence.

Although this has to be an uncomfortable situation for Rune, he handled it like a total pro.

“Ha ha ha. We might have cultural differences that make Anna read a comment on a story as an invitation to a date,” Rune wrote on X. “If I want to go on a date, I ask for a date . Don’t worry.”

Rune, the No. 11 ranked player on the ATP Tour, might earn new fans with this classy response. At the very least, it shows that he's unwilling to criticize his peers.

This story was originally reported by The Spun on Sep 12, 2025, where it first appeared in the Tennis section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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