NEW YORK – What a difference 53 days makes.
After freezing in the white-hot spotlight of the Wimbledon final, Amanda Anisimova rose to the occasion on Wednesday at the US Open, taking down Iga Swiatek, the same serial champion who had routed her 6-0 6-0 at the All England Club.
Seeing Anisimova swing away and do justice to her talent was reassuring for anyone who sat through that July mismatch, which was more implosion than demolition; an anticlimax that was gripping only for its unlikely storylines.
Was Swiatek, long suffering on grass, really going to win Wimbledon with a double bagel and barely a tussle? Was Anisimova, triumphant against No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, truly not going to win a single game on the same patch of well-tended grass?
Though the 57-minute humiliation could easily have left Anisimova reeling for months (or seasons), she has instead roared back just a few weeks later in New York: reaching her first US Open semifinal — and a matchup with Naomi Osaka — by showcasing her fearsome easy power, elite backhand, bold returns and resilience.
Anisimova literally stared down her demons: forcing herself to watch a replay of the Wimbledon final the night before facing Swiatek in New York.
What did she see on screen?
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