Amanda Anisimova: The Wimbledon final that beats depression
A final to close a chapter and send a message: depression can be beaten . Fears can be overcome, the feeling of inadequacy can disappear. Amanda Anisimova will play the Wimbledon final tomorrow against Iga Swiatek , another tennis player constantly battling her own shadows, and two years ago no one would have bet on it.
“I’ve been fighting for my mental health for a year,” Amanda declared in May 2023. “ It’s become impossible for me to play tournaments, I have to take a break .” And so it was for a year . Amanda, who will turn 24 in August and was born to Russian parents in Freehold, New Jersey, detoxed by finding a new hobby , painting , spending time with family and friends, and walking her dog Miley. Up until then, her career had been that of a child prodigy, winning the US Open under-18 tournament at 16 , and reaching the semifinals two years later among the top players at Roland Garros , the same year that saw her win her first ATP title in Bogotá and enter the top 30. “ She’s the new Sharapova ,” someone began to write, impressed by her aggressive and modern baseline tennis, perfected in Florida on the courts of the Chris Evert Academy. A predestined one, a sure bet. But tennis and life are full of surprises, sometimes cruel ones, and on the eve of the US Open, when Amanda had just turned 18, her father and first coach, Konstantin, was found dead of a heart attack . A terrible blow, "the worst thing that could have happened to me," as Amanda confessed, and she gave up playing that year in New York .
Tennis
Wimbledon, Alcaraz is the first finalist. He defeated Fritz 6-4; 5-7; 6-3; 7⁸-6⁶.
Then, around and after Covid, came some confusing years, filled with ups and downs. In 2022, she partially recovered, with her second win at Melbourne Summer Set 2 and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. But the demons were weighing on her , and a few months later, the crisis exploded. Yet another "green burn" tennis player, many thought, proof that tennis can have a brutal impact on the most fragile personalities . But Amanda kept her promise: hers was a break, not a goodbye. In January 2024, she returned to play, reached the final in Toronto that summer , and this year she lifted her first Masters 1000 Cup in Qatar and reached the final at Queen's.
At Wimbledon, a race with the lights off , in a tournament rocked by excellent defeats to which she also contributed in the semi-final by eliminating the world number 1 Aryna Sabalenka .
At Church Road, Amanda finally appears for what she is: a different player than in the past , more serene, less anxious, coached by two new coaches (Bob Brandsma and Rick Vleeshouwers) and engaged to a model, Tyler Roos , son of an Australian Rules legend. After the quarterfinal match , she celebrated on the court with her beautiful nephew Jackson and revealed that she continues to paint. "I do it between training sessions, and I mostly paint abstract subjects. For Wimbledon, I would use a lot of green and a lot of white ." Against Iga, however, she will have to use all her tennis and all her newfound balance. Last year she failed to qualify, defeated in the fourth round by the world number 191, now she is the first American to reach the Wimbledon final since Serena Williams (2019). On Monday, she will be among the top ten in the world, if she beats Swiatek, who is even number five . And in any case, she is a tennis player, and a person, who has found her way again.
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