From 6-0, 6-0 humiliation to US Open semifinal: Amanda Anisimova's fearless fightback

NEW YORK: How do you recover from a 6-0, 6-0 drubbing in a Grand Slam final? Played in front of a full-house of 15,000 spectators, who had paid up to 315 pounds for a ticket, and watched by millions around the world.A new, concise manual on that difficult turnaround authored by the fearless Amanda Anisimova is just out.

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The 24-year-old suggests that in the immediate aftermath, it might help to turn the page. To move on. But real recovery doesn’t begin until you own it, watch the footage, sit through the discomfort. And then you start again -- not from zero, but from experience.On Wednesday Anisimova gave a masterclass in resilience under a moody New York sky.

Up against Iga Swiatek -- the same opponent who had dished out that double bagel -- the American shredded the form book to score a 6-4, 6-3 win and reach her first US Open semi-final just 53 days later.
Anisimova had 23 winners and 12 unforced errors in a performance she called the most meaningful victory of her life.On the eve of the last-eight clash, Anisimova watched the highlights of the Wimbledon final, just the second double bagel in a Grand Slam final in the Open Era.

“Nobody told me to, but I watched them back, as painful as it was,” she said with a laugh, “just to see what I can avoid or what went wrong. It was important for me to see what had happened going into today's match.”What did she learn from the video? “I was slow as hell,” Anisimova said, laughing. “My reactions were just -- I was so slow, but it happens. I'm human and people just freeze sometimes.”There were nerves, but it was not just nerves. “I was also exhausted.

I was really fatigued into those last days of the tournament, and that's something I'm working on to be more physically fit to last two weeks in a Grand Slam. It's not just the matches we play, there's a lot of stress associated with these matches and the anticipation.”Anisimova’s tennis journey is layered. She turned pro at 15 and, by 18, had stormed into the semifinals of the French Open. But just two months after that career breakthrough in 2019, tragedy struck, her father and long-time coach, Konstantin, died of a sudden heart attack.The American was ranked 46 in the world when she announced in April 2023 on Social Media that she was taking a mental health break. She sat out of the Tour for eight months. When she returned in January last year, she was ranked 442.Having navigated her share of uphill battles, the eighth seed learnt the value of putting herself first. “To lose 6-0 6-0 in a Grand Slam final was a lot to experience,” she said. “Today I'm really, really proud of myself.

I made a point to myself and also maybe to other people that, if you have a positive mindset and work through things, you can have a positive outcome.”Anisimova’s time away from the Tour reshaped her outlook, giving her a new clarity that anchors her play.“I would have maybe blamed myself more or held onto guilt for a longer amount of time,” she said of her mentality before the break. “Truly the most bad I felt was for the people that had come to watch that day.

It was really, really quick. That was at the top of my mind, I know how much people pay for those tickets and are excited to see Wimbledon. I had that guilt on my back, I was thinking about that more as opposed to winning my first Grand Slam final.

” On Thursday, Anisimova will take on four-time major winner Naomi Osaka in the semifinals, while the top-seed Aryna Sabalekna will play American fourth seed Jessica Pegula in a replay of last year’s final.In the men’s semi-finals on Friday, defending champion Jannik Sinner, who ousted countryman Lorenzo Musetti 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the first all-Italian men’s major quarter-final, will face Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime in the last four. Auger-Aliassime put out the eighth seed Alex de Minaur 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5, 7-6 (4) to return to the last four here four years after he made it through to this stage of the tournament for the first time.