3 junior tennis player in the world in May 2012,[2] and in January 2014, won the girls' singles and doubles events at the Australian Open.

Further first-round exits followed in Hong Kong and Seoul before once again coming through qualifying in Tianjin where she defeated Sílvia Soler Espinosa, before losing to Peng Shuai in the second round.

Kulichkova made her major debut at the 2015 Wimbledon Championships by defeating Yanina Wickmayer (3–6, 7–6, 10–8), before losing to eventual quarterfinalist Madison Keys in the second round (4–6, 6–7).

In the first round at Baku, she was close to defeat top-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova but she lost the final tie-breaker.

For the first time Kulichkova was nominated for the Russia Fed Cup team in 2016 in the World Group play-offs against Belarus.