Anisimova lost to Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> in the final in New York but rebounded in spectacular fashion by winning the WTA 1000 title in Beijing just four weeks later.<\/p>\n\u201cOf course, it wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d said Anisimova, reflecting on her summer. \u201cI had to really work on myself mentally and just put things in perspective and sit down with myself and think about how I\u2019m going to bounce back or how I\u2019m going to go into the next few tournaments, especially if I have to face her [Swiatek] again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think everything kind of came naturally to me. I didn\u2019t really overthink anything. Just kind of like it\u2019s a new tournament, it\u2019s a new day and a new match. That\u2019s how I went about it, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanda Anisimova after her victory in Beijing this year. Photograph: Jessica Lee\/EPA<\/p>\n
Anisimova has had to navigate several difficult circumstances from a young age. Besides struggling with the lifestyle and the stressors of being a teenager on tour, she lost her father Konstantin one week shy of her 18th birthday.<\/p>\n
Asked where she draws her strength from, Anisimova says: \u201cEverything I\u2019ve experienced in my life. I think having gone through certain situations and things and being able to have healed myself from that in a way and really work on myself. I think that\u2019s where I get that kind of mentality. And I\u2019m surrounded by very strong women as well. So, I think it\u2019s a combination of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anisimova is driven by the simple idea of wanting to be \u201cthe best athlete I can be\u201d. She acknowledges nerves played a part in both finals she lost at the majors this year and is doing everything she can to address that issue. She\u2019s also learned to keep an eye out for signs of burnout, and tries to take a short break, or plan for a longer one, whenever she feels extreme fatigue is setting in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve just done a really good job of balancing my time on and off the court this year,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Anisimova has great chemistry with her team, and they all make sure they\u2019re able to have fun together, on and off the court.<\/p>\n
Before the action in Riyadh kicked off, they went dune-bashing in the Saudi desert. She was the only one who opted out of the camel ride \u2013 \u201cI felt so bad for them when I got there. We did it once. I normally wouldn\u2019t support the animals being used like that,\u201d she explains. She went for an ATV instead.<\/p>\n
Anisimova believes having the right people around her has been key, but more importantly, she believes young up-and-coming athletes should be encouraged to take ownership over their career decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you do so well at a young age, there\u2019s obviously a lot of pressure and expectations,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd a lot of new things that you\u2019ve never experienced before. And it\u2019s a lot for a young kid who\u2019s not developed fully, like not even close to fully. So it\u2019s definitely a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I would say that the younger girls on tour right now are doing a great job of balancing and managing that. I think the one thing that I would say that\u2019s important is the people you surround yourself with and the guidance and the advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to let girls know, or boys, to make the right decisions for yourself and listen to yourself and not try and say yes to everything and feel like you have to do certain things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a big killer in certain ways, is just feeling like you have to do certain things and that can really lead to burnout. So that\u2019s definitely something that I would have done differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since she returned to the tour following her break, Anisimova has received scores of messages from people telling her how much they could relate to her struggles, and how they found her journey inspiring.<\/p>\n
She finds herself connecting the most to people who have shared their journeys, and she\u2019s proud she can provide that for others as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being able to relate to certain people in that way is a special thing, even if you don\u2019t really know them. So for me to be able to do that to other people has been one of the most special things for me this year, for sure,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Showing there is strength in vulnerability is ultimately the message she hopes to convey to the world through her life as a professional tennis player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think me, just being myself this year, every kind of situation I\u2019ve been in or where I\u2019ve had to speak freely, and I really just try and be as authentic as I can,\u201d says Anisimova. \u201cAnd I think that really crossed over to a lot of people and it\u2019s really shown you can be vulnerable and that\u2019s OK. And I think that\u2019s kind of been the most important thing for me this year is to just really be myself and speak honestly and freely. And that\u2019s just what I try and do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is an air of calm surrounding Amanda Anisimova when she speaks; a palpable sense of her comfort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-241198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}