Amanda Anisimova vows to learn from Alcaraz and Sinner after humiliating Wimbledon final defeat
Amanda Anisimova admitted she was ‘in shock’ as she tried to sum up her 6-0, 6-0 defeat against Iga Swiatek in a one-sided Wimbledon final.
The American is only the third woman ever to lose a major final without winning a game and the first at Wimbledon since 1911, with her tears on court after the match summing up her mood of despair.
She composed herself before facing the press in a packed Media Theatre at Wimbledon and admitted the result was hard to accept.
“It was a bit tough to digest obviously, especially during and right after,” said Anisimova.
“It’s not how I would have wanted my first Grand Slam final to go. I think I was a little bit in shock after, as well. But I told myself, I’ll definitely come out stronger after this. I mean, that’s not an easy thing to go through, losing love and love in a Grand Slam final.
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“If anything, I can look at it as a positive and something I can look at as motivation going forward. Obviously there’s a lot of things I need to do to progress.”
As she tried to explain why she failed to find the form that allowed her to beat world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final, she suggested tension was not the major factor.
“I was nervous, but it wasn’t anything out of this world,” she reflected.
“If anything, I was more excited to go out there and compete. But yeah, I mean, I didn’t practice yesterday. I think that I was just really fatigued. I could feel it also in my warm-up this morning.
“I mean, I had to take a break after every single rally out there in my warm-up. I think, if anything, it’s my physicality that I need to work on. To be able to last two weeks in a Grand Slam is definitely something that you need to work a lot on. It’s not an easy feat.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of room for improvement, I think. If anything, I think it’s more experience for me on how to handle nerves. It’s my first slam final, so at least I have that experience now.
“I was getting so overwhelmed with emotion. I think I was just trying to hold it together, honestly. It was such a big moment. I was trying to remind myself, like, this is an incredible moment, to not try and let that go and get overwhelmed by all the feelings I was feeling.
“So I tried to keep it together and swallow all the tears and just speak from my heart really. There were a lot of things that I wanted to say. I felt like my speech was pretty long.
“I just wanted to really take advantage of the moment that I had and try and forget what had just transpired the previous hour and just kind of acknowledge everything that I’ve done the last two weeks and all the people that have helped me get there.”
Anisimova then tried to look to the future, as she suggested she could learn from the excellence of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
“When I look at certain players like Jannik or Carlos, who I look up to a lot, they don’t make easy mistakes and don’t give almost anything to their opponents,” she added.
“In a sense, I was looking at certain things in that perspective, but then I also reminded myself, nobody’s perfect. I was trying to go into today thinking that, Okay, I’ll accept the mistakes I make. Maybe that wasn’t the right way of going into it.
“I think like, honestly, my fighting spirit has gotten me to the final of today. It wasn’t me playing perfect in a way. There were matches where I struggled and I wasn’t playing to my full potential.
“I think me just staying focused and fighting my way through certain moments and focusing and also lifting myself up and trying to not get negative on myself was the most important thing. I think that’s really what got me to the final.”
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