Anisimova 2.0: stronger, faster and resilient

A year ago, as she worked her way back following a tennis hiatus, Amanda Anisimova, ranked World No. 189, made a quick exit at the Wimbledon Championships after losing in the third round of qualifying. On Monday, Anisimova, following two Grand Slam final appearances, climbed five spots to break into the top-5 for the first time in her career.

Less than two months ago, the World No. 4 battled seasoned opponents and heavy odds to make it to the championship match at Wimbledon, where Iga Swiatek served two bagels in less than an hour to wrap up the contest.

Overwhelmed by the manner and magnitude of defeat, Anisimova, having cried her heart out, promised to live by American author Marianne Williamson’s famous line: “Pain can burn you up and destroy you, or burn you up and redeem you.”

Elite athletes stand out from the crowd because of their ability to embrace failure, among other things. Pete Sampras, one of the finest players to have graced tennis, often recalled how the defeat to Stefan Edberg at the 1992 US Open shaped his career.

“I knew deep down in my heart that I didn’t fight that hard. I didn’t really want it enough at that time. And that’s when things changed. When I lost the match, it bothered me, it irked me. I feel like I packed it in. I promised myself I would never let that happen again. And so I look at that match as the pivotal one of my career — and it was a loss,” he told Graham Bensinger in an interview.

Sampras won 13 Grand Slams after that.

For Anisimova, a rematch with Swiatek in the quarterfinals of the New York Major brought added pressure, with highlights of her drubbing at the hands of the Pole being shown on every screen around her. And she did what mere mortals wouldn’t: watch that now infamous Wimbledon final the night before.

Having realised that she was “slow as hell” at SW19, she played without fear on home soil, dictating terms, hitting 23 winners to Swiatek’s 13, and maintaining a strong return game, converting four of nine break points.

“I was really trying to go in with the right mindset, especially the last 24 hours, really preparing myself more mentally than physically. I’m really pleased with the way I was able to go into it and perform,” Anisimova said after beating Swiatek 6-4, 6-3.

Tragedy, and a chance association

After making waves on the junior circuit, Anisimova caught the attention of the tennis world at the 2019 Roland-Garros, where she beat defending champion Simona Halep in the last eight and became the first tennis player born in the 21st century to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals of a Major.

Later, the 24-year-old revealed that she studied Halep for all of five minutes to not only add to her own arsenal but also find a chink in the Romanian’s armour.

“Not only was I trying to hit the backhand down the line like her but I also knew when she was going to go backhand down the line… that kind of helped me. I got two advantages out of that after watching her for like five minutes,” she told Tennis Channel after beating Halep.

While that French Open run pushed her firmly into the spotlight, her world came crashing down when her father, Konstantin Anisimov, died of a heart attack a week before her 18th birthday when she was in New York preparing for her home Slam.

“The only thing that has helped me is just playing tennis and being on court. That’s what makes me happy, and I know it would make him happy… so that’s the way it is,” she said in a press conference later that year, reflecting on the loss of her father.

While the sentiment was understandable, the results did not match it. She struggled across tournaments in Wuhan and Beijing.

Even though she failed to set the stage on fire in China, it did prove a pivotal moment in her career as she began working with Carlos Rodriguez during that tour.

For the Argentinian, this was familiar territory. He had previously coached another teenage sensation, Justine Henin, who also dealt with a family tragedy early on in her career — the death of her mother due to cancer when she was 12.

Under Rodriguez’s tutelage, the foundations of Anisimova’s aggressive baseline game, highlighted by devastating groundstrokes and a strong two-handed backhand, were strengthened.

Rodriguez, who also coached Li Na, believes that Anisimova was born with the right instincts for the game. “She feels the game. It’s something you can develop but cannot learn,” he told Tennis Channel in 2019.

Reading the room

Another thing that is hard to teach an athlete is the ability to take tough calls and prioritise mental well-being, especially in their prime years.

Anisimova, in May 2023, did just that. Even though she continued to do well on court, she decided to take a break from tennis, stating that things were becoming “unbearable” for her.

“It was a tough decision, especially because I was at a pretty good place in my career. My ranking was good and everything was in a good place. But I knew deep down that I was struggling a lot and I was not really enjoying it. I know that success only comes when you are actually having fun, especially in the long term,” she told WTA recently while reflecting on her decision to stay away from the tour.

Animisova went on vacations, spent time with family and friends, attended university in person and took up painting as a hobby. And when she finally picked up the racquet again, she began to play with the confidence of a veteran while also enjoying the process like a starry-eyed teenager trading rallies with their idols.

She made her comeback ranked World No. 373 and broke into the top-50 within eight months — the same amount of time she spent on the sidelines. She has since won the biggest title of her career (WTA 1000 in Doha), played two Grand Slam finals and reached a career-high ranking.

Anisimova, like many of sports’ finest athletes, thrives when the chips are down. She remains unfazed and hyper-confident.

“The only thing that motivates me is when people do not believe in me. That’s the only thing I care about… when people think that I wouldn’t win today, or something like that, I want to prove people wrong,” she explained in an interview in 2019.

And so, with Sabalenka just two points from the title and the craftsmen from Tiffany getting ready to etch the Belarusian’s name on the trophy for the second straight year, Anisimova dug deep, broke serve and forced a tie-break. Though she ended up losing the match, it gave a glimpse of her new-found desire to fight until the very end. If the result is looked at in a larger context, the defeat was deflating rather than heartbreaking.

After losing to Swiatek at Wimbledon, Anisimova admitted that she cried for 30 minutes before getting on the phone with a friend and “laughing it off.” And so the Florida resident will get over this setback, too. She will rest, she will reflect, and she will bounce back.

For, as Martina Navratilova remarked while commentating for the BBC, Anisimova is “too much of a perfectionist”.