Online Reporter
A YEAR ago, Amanda Anisimova was doing her best to avoid thinking about Wimbledon after failing to qualify for the main draw. Now she has a final to prepare for.
The American stunned world number one tennis player Aryna Sabalenka – and herself – to reach today’s showpiece, with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win.
The 23-year-old will face Poland’s Iga Swiatek in her first Grand Slam final after fulfilling the potential she had shown as a teenager several years ago before taking a lengthy break to look after her mental health.
“To be honest, if you told me I would be in the final of Wimbledon I would not believe you. Especially not this soon,” Anisimova said.
“It’s been a year’s turnaround. To be in the final is just indescribable, honestly.”
After losing in the third round of qualifying while ranked 191st in the world, this time last year she was relaxing with her friends and family to take her mind off Wimbledon.
“Every time I’m out of a Grand Slam or a tournament, I take a few days off. I don’t turn my phone off, but I don’t really follow [what is going on],” she said.
“I like to just relax and spend as much time with whoever I’m with. That’s what I was doing.”
Watched on Centre Court by her sister Maria and nephew Jaxson, who was celebrating his fourth birthday, and her best friend and fellow player Priscilla Hon – who had cancelled a training session to be there – Anisimova was surrounded by her loved ones for different reasons on Thursday.
Delivering the type of big-hitting performance that she had shown six years ago in a breakthrough year when she reached the French Open semi-finals, she put herself one win away from a first major title.
She is only the second player in the Open era to reach a women’s singles Grand Slam final after losing in qualifying at the previous year’s event. The only other woman is Bianca Andreescu, who won the US Open in 2019.
She may be only 23 but Anisimova has been touted as a Grand Slam finalist for a long time.
At the age of 15 she was the junior world number two and she lifted the US Open girls’ title in 2017, where she beat two-time Grand Slam singles champion Coco Gauff in the final.
A foot injury then hampered her progress the following year but then in 2019 she had a breakthrough year, winning her first WTA title at the age of 17 to become the youngest winner on the tour since Serena Williams 20 years earlier.
She carried that momentum on into a brilliant run to the French Open semi-finals, beating defending champion Simona Halep and Sabalenka along the way and drawing predictions of a bright career ahead.
But she was stopped in her tracks a couple of months later after the sudden death of her father Konstantin, who was also her coach, just before the US Open. – BBC Sport
