Amanda Anisimova plays fierce to earn maiden title at Bogota: Next title?
At 17, the Jersey teen captured her first WTA title at the Claro Open in Bogota, Colombia. She defeated Astra Sharma in a three-set battle of 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to put some serious thoughts in her future opponents' heads. Can they dismantle her as she did others?
Amanda Anisimova's year didn't start out so wonderful, but it kept her grounded enough to know that something more and lovely would come out of her efforts. She would get to the round of 16 at the Australian Open taking down Monica Niculescu, Lesia Tsurenko, and Aryna Sabalenka; then the inevitable happened. She came up against Petra Kvitova. "She came out with a really solid game plan against me so that kind of threw me off...it's a little bit frustrating because I lost and I don't think I really played that well...Petra came out really fired up and she was playing amazing..." Amanda Anisimova explained at the Australian Open press conference about her match with Petra Kvitova. "...I wasn't executing my shots the way I wanted to, so today was just tough..." But there was nearly a complete turnaround with the Bogota final with Sharma.
The Australian came out super confident and aggressive with Anisimova, just off a win of her Bogota doubles title with partner Zoe Hives and now she felt invincible. It was a quick climb to a 4-2 lead on the Jersey teen but a subtle, unexpected drop shot by Anisimova started making Sharma more aware of her skills. She levelled the games at 4-all, but Sharma was too clever and won the first set 6-4. The second set wasn't looking good for Anisimova as she struggled with her serve and Sharma kept making great returns to lead 2-0. Then things started happening as the 17-year-old hit a few winners in the open court and gave heavy strategic moves to win the second set 6-4. Anisimova broke with the first game of the deciding set, but it was followed by a game from Sharma. It was the first and only game the teen would let her opponent have. She steamrolled her and after a while nothing Sharma did matter. The match had Anisimova's name heavily etched and she took the decider 6-1, the first title of her time on tour. She'd made it to a final last September at the Japan Women's Open in Hiroshima against Hsieh Su-Wei, but the Taiwanese was too slick and devious for Anisimova defeating her in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.
Amanda Anisimova may be ranked number 76 now, but not for long as she has shown her skills of smoothly mixing up her shots when the rallies prove too boring. The ability to stay focused can work towards her good and she doesn't get totally rattled when her game starts to turn sour. She has turned heads and rightfully so, because Anisimova plays as though there is nothing to lose which can contribute to her becoming victorious and possibly soon winning another WTA title.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2IA3mb6
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