MASON − Madeira native Caty McNally’s Cincinnati Open singles run is over.
McNally, the World No. 70, lost in the second round (Round of 64) to No. 18 seed Anna Kalinskaya in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, on Tony Trabert Stadium 3 on Saturday, Aug. 15.
In a break-heavy first set, Kalinskaya won 50% of second serve points and continued that trend in the second set, where she won 69% of points on the second serve. The match was competitive throughout with Kalinskaya holding a 60-53 advantage overall in total points won, but the difference was in break opportunities.
“It’s always tough playing Anna. She’s obviously a very dangerous player and when she’s playing well and seeing the ball, she can hit anyone off the court,” McNally said. “I knew going into the match it was going to be tough.”
Kalinskaya converted 5 of 10 break points, including in the pivotal ninth game of the second set to break a 4-4 tie. Kalinskaya, the World No. 21, then held serve to book her spot in the Round of 32.
“I was gonna have to try to disrupt her as much as possible,” McNally said. “Looking back, I wish I would’ve done that a little more, but she also played at a very high level and made it very uncomfortable for me.”
Kalinskaya has been a local killer in recent years. In 2025, she defeated Peyton Stearns in three sets in the same round of the Cincinnati Open on her way to a quarterfinals appearance, where she lost to eventual champion Iga Swiatek.
Though a disappointing result in her hometown tournament, McNally added onto a bounce-back year that included a career-high singles ranking (No. 50) earlier this summer. McNally has won at least one main draw match over the last five WTA1000 tournaments and is 16-10 overall in her last 10 events.
“I think there’s been a lot of consistency. It’s always tough at these 1000 (tournaments), you’re gonna feed into a seed right way in the second round. I think I’m just at that hump where last week I got the win over Noskova and I’ve lost some close matches against some top players,” McNally said. “That’s the next step for me is beating those seeded players and finding ways no matter what to get through those matches. I think there’s definitely been consistency in these wins.”
Her Cincinnati Open is not over, though. McNally will team up with Iva Jovic in doubles. That tandem will face China’s Xu Yifan-Tang Qianhui in the first round of the doubles draw later in the tournament.
“It’s gonna be fun. Obviously, Iva is a great player and super competitive and aggressive. I think we both will have the same mindset of how we kind of want to play,” McNally said.
Fellow Cincinnati native Peyton Stearns will play in the Round of 64 to begin the Aug. 15 night session against No. 27 seed Clara Tauson.
The Enquirer will update this story.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Madeira’s Caty McNally falls in 2nd round of Cincinnati Open
Reporting by Shelby Dermer and Yanyan Li, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Shelby Dermer and Yanyan Li, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
