Amanda Anisimova will arrive at Wimbledon this year with plenty of good memories – but also in the hope she can “rewrite the story” with a much happier ending.
Twelve months ago, Anisimova won a compelling two-and-a-half hour tussle in the semi-finals with world number one Aryna Sabalenka to reach a first Grand Slam final.
But just two days later she failed to win a single game in the showpiece against Iga Swiatek, losing 6-0 6-0 in only 57 minutes – a scoreline that had not been seen in a Wimbledon ladies’ singles final since 1911.
“I got a bit frozen with my nerves,” was how Anisimova put it, before predicting she would be stronger for the experience.
Many watching her evident and unsettling discomfort on Centre Court – and the tears as she thanked her family after the match – may have wondered how long that would take.
About six weeks was the answer.
At the very next Grand Slam – the US Open in New York – Anisimova exacted her revenge on Swiatek in the quarter-finals, before beating two-time winner Naomi Osaka to reach a second successive major final.
“Being able to manage my nerves and go out there and try to forget the past [after a] very quick turn around – that was the biggest mental challenge I had to overcome,” Anisimova, 24, told BBC Sport at Indian Wells in March.
“I was also enjoying it out there. I felt like once I went out there I didn’t have the stress or any weight on my shoulders – maybe because I had a lot of people supporting me.”
Anisimova returns to Wimbledon this week after a difficult year in which she has parted ways with her coach and missed two months of the clay season with a left wrist injury.
“I’m going into this just excited to play and be healthy again,” she said at Queen’s, where she lost in the quarter-finals.