If one were to say that France has two players in the Top 100 of the WTA Rankings, it would be a head-scratcher for most people. While many tennis fans are aware of the terrific rise of Diane Parry, who sits at No.30 in the rankings, the identity of the second French player might come as a surprise to many.
Ranked 94 on the WTA Rankings, Anna Blinkova has switched her nationality from Russian to French, becoming the second Top-100 player for France. Even though she is from Moscow, the former World No. 34 was granted French citizenship by naturalization, as she has lived in the country for over 10 years and has her training setup based in Cannes.
Blinkova started her journey as a French player at the ongoing Sao Paulo Open, where she has already notched up two victories while having the French flag beside her name. She beat the likes of Carol Young Suh Lee, and Vendula Vandmannova to reach the quarterfinals, where she is all set to face Alina Charaeva, who herself switched her Russian nationality to Armenian this year.
Blinkova and Charaeva are part of a larger wave of Russian-born players who have switched their nationalities to different countries, based on their residence and training setups. The current World No.1 Elena Rybakina plays under the flag of Kazakhstan, after making her nationality switch from Russia. Players such as Yulia Putintseva, Daria Kasatkina, Kamila Rakhimova, and Polina Kudermetova are among the Russian players who have changed their national identities in recent times.
However, the one player whose nationality change most closely matches Blinkova’s is Varvara Gracheva. Gracheva switched her nationality from Russian to French back in 2023, after many years with a similar training setup in Cannes, like Blinkova. While playing on the Tour as a French player, Gracheva also fulfilled her national commitments as a member of the French team at the 2023 and 2024 Billie Jean King Cup. She also competed for the French flag at the Paris Olympics, competing in both singles and doubles.
However, for Blinkova, playing for the French national team might take a bit of waiting, as the former Russian player has fulfilled her national obligations in past editions of the Billie Jean King Cup.
Anna Blinkova Has Been Part of a Winning Russian Team at the Billie Jean King Cup
The main obstacle for Blinkova to play for the French team is that she has previously been part of a Russian team in the Billie Jean King Cup. She played both singles and doubles in Russia’s tie against Chinese Taipei back in 2017. However, her most significant contribution came in 2020-21, when she was part of a winning team.
Playing in the qualifying round for the Russian team, Blinkova partnered up with Anna Kalinskaya against Team Romania and beat the pair of Jaqueline Cristian and Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the deciding doubles, securing the victory for their team. Even though Blinkova was not part of the team that played in the finals, the Russian team beat the Swiss team to clinch the title.
Having previously represented Russia, Blinkova will need to complete a waiting period and an ITF approval process before she can start representing France in national competitions. She will likely miss the opportunity to be eligible for selection for France’s World Group tie against Australia in November.
Aside from her heroics at the Billie Jean King Cup, Blinkova has won two Tour-level titles as a Russian player, the last of which came at the Jiangxi Open last year. She also has three doubles titles to her name, winning the last one at the ATX Open last year, while partnering with Yuan Yue. Blinkova’s biggest on-court moment came at the 2024 Australian Open, when she beat Rybakina in a three-set thriller, winning a 22-20 tiebreak in the final set, which is the longest tiebreak in Grand Slam history.