Welcome to "Next Up," where USOpen.org will showcase rising stars on the ATP and WTA tours who could be in line to make a splash to remember at the 2022 US Open. Today, we're looking at American Amanda Anisimova, who, at just 20, is a prime candidate for this category. The difference for this New Jerseyan, though, is that her rise isn't new: It's a strong resurgence.
In the first half of 2019, a then-17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova seemed to collect a major milestone every time she hit a tennis court. At the Australian Open that year, she became the first player born in the 2000s to reach the second week of a Grand Slam. In April, she captured her first-ever title at a tournament in Colombia. Two months later at Roland Garros, she defeated Aryna Sabalenka (whom she also defeated earlier in Melbourne) and defending champion Simona Halep to earn a spot in the semifinals of a major for the first time.
With her clean, aggressive groundstrokes—and, in particular, her sublime backhand, which she employed frequently as a weapon both crosscourt and down the line—the 2017 US Open girls’ singles champion looked well on her way to occupying a top perch of the WTA elite.
Then, real life intervened. Days before the 2019 US Open, Anisimova’s father and onetime coach, Konstantin Anisimov, tragically and suddenly passed away. She took the rest of the year off, and just as she was returning to the tour at the beginning of 2020, a global pandemic halted the entire sport. In 2021, due in part to a series of injuries and health issues, she struggled to get going and find consistency, and her ranking eventually plummeted to No. 86. She reached the quarterfinals of just two tournaments.
Still, by the 2021 US Open, the New Jersey native began to show signs of the form that previously propelled her to her 2019 heights. Under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Anisimova battled No. 4 seed Karolina Pliskova in an all-out, three-set second round slugfest that spanned nearly two-and-a-half hours and culminated with a final-set tiebreak in which both players saved match points.
Although Pliskova ultimately emerged victorious, the encounter again showed what Anisimova could do on a tennis court against one of the world’s top players. And throughout the first half of 2022, she’s continuing to show that. Again and again and again.
After kicking off the season with her second-ever title at an Australian Open tune-up event, Anisimova entered the first major of the year as an unseeded threat and promptly dispatched No. 22 seed and Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, as well as defending champion Naomi Osaka, to reach the Round of 16 at a major for the first time since her 2019 breakout. In her contest against Osaka, Anisimova confidently saved two match points to eke out the win.
“I thought she played really well,” Osaka told reporters after the match. “I think the pace of her ball surprised me…[her ball] comes so quickly at me that I felt like I didn’t really have time to set up.”
In the months since, that pure, clean ball striking has taken Anisimova far. This past spring, she reached the quarterfinals or better at every WTA clay tournament she entered, collecting wins over Sabalenka, Bencic, two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka and 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins. In Paris, she made her second consecutive Round of 16 appearance at a major, again taking out Osaka in the first round.
On the grass courts at Wimbledon, her game proved just as potent, if not more so. After losing the first set in her third round match against fellow American rising star and 2022 French Open finalist Coco Gauff, Anisimova shored up her groundstrokes and quickly subdued her quick—and quick-serving—opponent, who could only manage to win three more games in the final two sets. Anisimova would go on to reach the quarterfinals, becoming just one of two women (with Elise Mertens) to make a second-week appearance at all three Grand Slams in 2022.
As a result of all her success, Anisimova is now comfortably back in the world’s Top 30, and well-positioned to reach a career-high ranking later this year. Could she make her fourth consecutive second week of a major at Flushing Meadows? Time will tell. Right now, Anisimova is concentrating on appreciating what she’s already accomplished.
“Knowing what it feels like to get to the semifinal of a Grand Slam, and knowing how much it means to me, that’s what has kept me going, practicing every day,” she told reporters after her Round of 16 match at Wimbledon.
“I’m just happy with the way that I kept pushing myself, knowing that the hard work would eventually pay off.”
