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The highways of women’s tennis are littered with the remnants of former teenage prodigies — girls who have flown so high only for pressure, injuries or just plain real life to melt their waxen wings.
Amanda Anisimova was nearly one of those. She could feel it happening — the burden of non-stop travel and competition beginning to feel unbearable. Amid all that, she was grieving the death of her father.
Attempting to push through could have been ruinous to her career and mental health. So she stepped away for seven months in 2023. Her run to the Wimbledon final, where she faces Iga Swiatek on Saturday, is a vindication of that decision.
‘When I took my break, a lot of people told me, “You will never make it to the top again if you take so much time away”,’ said Anisimova, 23.
‘That was hard to digest because I did want to come back and win a Grand Slam one day. Being able to prove you can get back to the top if you prioritise yourself… that’s incredibly special to me.’
Swiatek has looked like she needed a break herself over the last 12 months. When she won the 2024 French Open, she was an utterly dominant world No 1.
Amanda Anisimova will play in the Wimbledon final on Saturday after rediscovering her form following a seven month break in 2023
The 23-year-old prevailed against the world No1 Aryna Sabalenka on Centre Court on Wednesday
The American will play former world No 1 Iga Swiatek, who has taken advantage of a kind draw
Then came a contaminated batch of melatonin — which she carelessly did not have tested — and a one-month doping ban. She has never recovered, her brain scrambled by the fear of public perception and the stress of the ban and what it meant for her ranking.
The 24-year-old has not won a title since that previous visit to Roland Garros and it would be quite the irony if she broke that streak here.
Her defeat in the semi-finals at the French Open allowed time to prepare. She made the final on the lawns of Bad Homburg, Germany, and has done the same here, taking advantage of a kind draw: Anisimova, the No 13 seed, will be her first opponent in the world’s top 18. This is their first meeting in the seniors — they last played as juniors in 2016.
The edge goes to Swiatek, largely for the lethality of her serve-plus-forehand combination: she has won 78 per cent of her first-serve points (more than anyone who went past the first round) and saved 82 per cent of the break points she has faced.
