I sided with Amanda Anisimova (pictured) twice in Cincinnati and notes on both are below, ahead of her match with Petra Martic I wrote ......
Petra Martic is very solid, has been ranked as low as #34, but is usually in the 50-100 group, she has earned $2.5m in prize money and a good living from the game, but is what you would call a journeywoman player.
Amanda Anisimova is still a baby, 11 years Martic's junior but has the tennis world at her feet and notes from her 6-3 6-4 win over Timea Babos yesterday are reproduced below the "good luck" sign off. She could be anything, but by that I mean either top 20 or top 3 ! Of course, she is not there yet, or close, but has that ability and when, if ever, will she be even money to beat a player like Martic in the future ?
The Croatian has made R4 at a few slams and is capable on her day, I would not read too much into her win over a troubled Daria Kasatkina ( we will discuss her at the US Open) yesterday, but she is 18-36 on hardcourts v top 50 and how can we not view Anisimova as of that level, even at this stage of her career.
She won both in two sets, I said in the Babos notes how very impressed I had been with her and saw nothing in Cincy to make me change that opinion, only to raise level of expectation. The match with Martic was stopped a couple of times for rain, once for 24 hours but she retained focus and showed composure way beyond her years.
Today she meets Taylor Townsend who was viewed similarly when she won a host of Junior slam titles and was ranked #1, but has yet (she is still only 22) made the big breakthrough in seniors, she has been plaqued with weight problems and had issues with the USTA who withdrew her funding for a while citing health and fitness concerns. She has got her ranking up to 73 and was a career high 61 last month and is heading in the right direction, but today, this still feels like unfulfilled potential and unless she hauls it all together and I hope she does, a big talent wasted. Anisimova, even at 16yo, feels like a level above and I expect her to win in two. Anisimova is playing her first US Open as a senior, but won the Junior title here last year as a 15yo, without dropping a set and only twice losing more than three games in any set. TT is 0-7 v top 20 ranked players, 3-14 against top 50 on hardcourts and Anisimova is of that level and more.
Good Luck.
Amanda Anisimova- Timea Babos (written August 14th)
Not sure I have been as impressed by a 16 yo player as much as Amanda Anisimova for many, many years. Not just her talent, but the way her career is being planned with no real rush and a knowledge that she is heading for the top regardless and that is both refreshing and highlights what a special talent she might be. Back in March at the Miami Open I wrote ......
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They messed with the
Miami Open schedule and we have some first round matches today, not really an issue as there is not a lot to discuss, but I do have to say a few words about the match up between
Amanda Anisimova and
Qiang Wang.
I have no real issues with Wang, she is a decent player, ranked at around the 50 mark which is about her level ,but she struggles against the better and taller players on Tour who are not Kristina Mladenovic ! She seems to have the Frencwoman's number leading the h2h 3-0, but is otherwise 3-18 against top 20 players and 0-5 against those as tall as Anisimova . The flaw in these numbers is that her 16 yo opponent is currently ranked #130 but that is only because she has played just five minutes on Tour and is no reflection on her ability(already) or limitless potential.
Last week I wrote ...........
I was very impressed with 16 yo Amanda Anisimova in her win over Petra Kvitova on Sunday, Kvitova was a bit of a no show and might need a rest now after her two tournament wins, but it was still a major scalp and it just looked like once the contest started that Anisimova expected to win . No nerves, no over celebration, she is listed at 1.78m but is definitely taller and is only going to get bigger/stronger, must be nice to have the world at your feet in your mid teens ! Both her parents are Russian, but they moved to the US before Amanda was born, she is the current US Open Junior champion and also made the final in Roland Garros, which is eyecatching for a youngster bought up on US hardcourts. today she meets another Czech and one of a similar height to Kvitova in Karolina Pliskova who was briefly at #1 last summer, but has since fallen to 5 and is another player you kind of feel was not really happy, like Angelique Kerber with the crown. The courts here suit Pliskova well, she is 14-4 at Indian Wells in the last four years, only losing to the best of the best ( Halep, Kuznetsova. Azarenka and Li Na). It feels like this would be too much for Anisimova, she had not won a WTA match until last week and has done enough, but I couldn't oppose her and I suspect in the near future we will look at odds like 3.15 to beat anyone and think , wow !
From the NY Times:
Not Anisimova and her already sizable entourage, which includes her father and head coach, Konstantin Anisimov; her mother, Olga; her traveling coach, Max Fomine; her longtime coaching consultant, Nick Saviano; and her longtime agent, Gary Swain; as well as Max Eisenbud, the hard-driving IMG vice president who represents, among others, Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys.
“We’ve got a very long view,” Konstantin Anisimov said. “We are very happy she is doing way better than we expected, to be honest with you, but at the same time we are staying very calm and understanding that she is young. She is still growing, and she is definitely not ready to play a full schedule and at age 16. She is not allowed to play a full schedule. So we are trying to do more quality than quantity.”
But this is the comment which really got me, veteran José Higueras who has coached Chang, Courier, Bruguera, Moya , Sampras and Federer (!) and knows a good player when he sees one and who is not exactly know for hyperbole said her two-handed backhand was "already one of the best in the professional game " !
Q. There is a lot of talk about your backhand out there, that impressive shot. Can you just talk about that shot in your game, the importance of that?
AMANDA ANISIMOVA: Yeah, I really like my backhand. A lot of people tell me I set it up really well. I just really feel when I’m on court I don’t really have bad days with it. I don’t really have a favorite shot. I think all of my shots are equally pretty good. My backhand is really good, too. I don’t really prefer it over any other shot.
Pliskova has a very good record against players ranked outsde the top 100 and top 50 very good, but to think of Anisimova as being of that level just feels wrong even if she was #149 last week, she will be top 20 as soon as her age/schedule allows.
Pliskova was forced to come back from 1-5 down in the opening set against Irina-Camelia Begu in R1 and had to work extremely hard against Zhang Shuai, eventually prevailing 7-5 5-7 6-3. Pliskova had won all six of their previous meetings and she clearly exactly in the groove right now and allowed Zhang a huge number of break points (18) and said afterwards that she lacked a competitive edge :
I think my energy dropped a little bit, and at that point when my energy dropped hers went up,” Pliskova said. “She really went for it and was aggressive, going for the shots and even some lucky ones.
“I tried to put my energy up in the beginning of the third set, and she helped me with a few mistakes. Thanks god I served it out. In the third set I think my serve helped me quite a lot.”
I don't know what to do, my head says that it is a step too far and it would even be better for AA and her long term progress to lose this, but my heart says it is has been a long time since I have been so excited by what a teen has shown on the court.
I wrote after the contest .......... She (Osaka) now meets Karolina Pliskova who beat the super impressive Amanda Anisimova in two sets yesterday, but the second went to a breaker and I saw nothing to put me off the 16yo wunderkind !
Anisimova got a wild card for this event and is at "home" with Miami being only 25km from Aventura where she lives. Limited by age in what events she can play, I suspect she will be motivated today to make the most of another opportunity and the court here will not suit Wang as well as Indian Wells and the Chinese player lost to another teenager we discussed a lot last week in Sofya Zhuk recently (1&2 in Dubai) which should offer Anisimova further encouragement. This is very early in Anisimova's career, but she is even money today and will probably be 1.30 the next time the two meet, so we have to try something .
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She won that in three sets and was next meant to face Garbine Muguruza which would have been very interesting, but had to withdraw. We have not seen her subsequently until San Jose, where she came through qualfying and then beat Qiang Wang this time in two sets, so her level must be similar/improved and is only going one way and with a bullet once she can play regularly. She lost in SJ to top 20 Mihaela Buzarnescu in three sets, the first was close and AA took the second 6-2 and she was not far away from the "upset".
I opposed opponent Timea Babos in Montreal last week ............
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If Goerges is up for this she should win and quickly.
I spoke about Babos' issues v stronger players at the Miami Open earlier this year .............
Jelena Ostapenko served us very well at Roland Garros last year and she is great fun to watch on any surface, she always goes for her shots and can be unplayable when things click, but her second serve needs a lot of work. But maybe we can let that slide today as we get odds against and I have her as favourite to beat Timea Babos who is a bit of a "flat track bully" in that she is 24-26 in the last 12 months, 14-4 v opponents ranked 101 +, but 10-22 v those inside the 100 (68-122 career) and 3-14 against top 50 (27-79 career).With lifetime records backing up those numbers. In career Premier tournaments like this, she is 0-11 against top 10 players winning just four sets. Babos did beat Mona Barthel 7-6 6-3 in Round 1, but the German was wasteful, winning just 2 of 11 break points.
Ostapenko is 81-49 on hardcourts versus non top 20 players .
Babos is a world class doubles player (top 5), but whilst she has been as low as 25 in singles, she has to play above herself to stay around 45-50 and Ostapenko is a couple of levels above that. I also expect the performances of Osaka and Kasatkina, who are her age group, at Indian Wells to inspire/motivate and she will surely want to find some real form before the clay season starts and the build up to Roland Garros in many ways begins today.
Ostapenko won that in two, Babos actually made the final in her next tournament Monterrey but lost there to the only top 50 player she faced that week. She is 3-9 subsequently, with her wins coming over players ranked 57-256-75, her losses included one to Goerges in Madrid ( 6-2 6-4) and 0&1 to Sakkari last week. She is 1-19 versus top 10 in WTA events. 8-39 v top 20 and 26-87 against those ranked inside the top 50.
Goerges in now up to #10, is 24-8 on hardcourts v those ranked 21+ in the last 12 months, 18-4 since Moscow last year, with two losses coming to Petra Kvitova who's non 20 ranking was a very temporary blip and, 10 of her last 11 wins within that category have come in two sets.
Goerges skipped Washington where she made the final last year (opted to play elsewhere the week before), but she has been in Montreal practicing for a week and perhaps it is just that now she is top 10, she wants to focus more on the bigger events and she has no points to defend here.
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Babos lost but in three, Goerges did not look herself there, especially early and retired from this tournament yesterday and I wonder what sort of shape she is in. Babos has all the shots and a big game, but struggles to put all of it, or even 2-3 elements together at the same time, there is a player in there somewhere, but we rarely see it outside of doubles, where she is the current #1 ranked player. This will be a good test for Anisimova , but we have to get involved some way.
1.5 units Amanda Anisimova to win 2-0 sets 2.55 Pinnacle/Sportmarket Pro.
