“There isn’t a teenager who would have won the first round against Niculescu besides Amanda,” said her agent, Max Eisenbud. “That match, until today’s match, was her most impressive win. The way Niculescu slices and throws everything at you, it was getting tight, and she was able to perform. A crafty, experienced girl who threw everything at her, and she still won in straight sets.”
Eisenbud also represents the player to whom Anisimova is most often compared: Maria Sharapova. While he said that comparisons between the two — blondes with Russian roots who stormed the tennis stage at a young age — were unfair to both, he observed that Anisimova and Sharapova did share a diligent work ethic and an ability not to be fazed in the biggest moments.
Frances Tiafoe, who also reached the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time on Friday, gushed over Anisimova, in his own way.
“It’s like she’s been a veteran,” Tiafoe said. “She’s going out here, and Sabalenka is playing great tennis — she routined her like it was nothing. It was barbecue chicken for her. It’s unbelievable.”
In her news conference Friday, Anisimova said that her confidence was growing.
“I believe in myself so much more than I ever did in this tournament,” she said. “It’s just trusting myself. That’s why I have been also playing really well.”
That confidence leads her to hope she can follow in Sharapova’s footsteps in another way: by becoming a Grand Slam champion as a teenager. Asked what her dream was for her career, Anisimova expressed a desire for instant gratification.
“I want to win this tournament — right now,” she said, smiling.
Anisimova, who broke through at the junior level by winning the 2017 United States Open girls’ title, complements her desire for immediacy with an uncommon curiosity about the past, expressing her admiration for Billie Jean King, the pioneer who played a formative role in getting women’s professional tennis off the ground.
from WordPress http://bit.ly/2FHsUl3
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment