A GRIEVING YOUNG TENNIS STAR FINDS SOLACE ON THE COURT
With her tennis career taking flight at age 17, Amanda Anisimova was abruptly grounded — out of last year’s U.S. Open as she grieved.
Her father, Konstantin Anisimov, was just 52 when he died of a heart attack on Aug. 19, one week before the start of the year’s final Grand Slam tournament.
Anisimov, an imposing and brainy Russian immigrant with a baritone voice, was his daughter’s longtime coach, and although he and Amanda’s mother, Olga, had recently separated and a new coaching team had been put in place, Anisimov remained in regular contact with his family.
His death at home in Aventura, Florida, came while Anisimova, an American who is one of the game’s most promising talents, was in New York preparing for the U.S. Open after her breakthrough run to the French Open semifinals earlier in the season.
Anisimova withdrew from the event and retreated to Miami with Olga and Maria Egee, her older sister, before returning briefly to competition in late September.
“It was really hard to, like, leave my house,” Anisimova said in an interview last month.
She has made major career moves of late. She has signed a long-term deal with Nike that should guarantee her several million dollars per year, although the terms have not been disclosed.
She has also hired Carlos Rodríguez, one of the most successful coaches in women’s tennis, who once helped Justine Henin find her way after the death of a parent. But Anisimova is understandably still grappling with her father’s death. When asked what she might feel comfortable sharing about him, she cradled her face in her hands and quietly cried for more than a minute before making it clear that she wanted to proceed.
“This is obviously the hardest thing I’ve had to go through and the hardest thing that’s ever happened to me, and I don’t really talk about it with anyone,” she said. “The only thing that has helped me is just playing tennis and being on the court. That’s what makes me happy, and I know it would make him happy, so that’s the way it is.”
Ranked 22nd, she appears to be in fine form heading into the Australian Open next week, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament. Anisimova, now 18, opened the season last week by reaching the semifinals of the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. She also fulfilled a longtime goal by facing Serena Williams, who reminded Anisimova why she has been the greatest player of this era by winning, 6-1, 6-1.
At nearly 6 feet tall and with one of the best two-handed backhands in the game, Anisimova is a power player who can also defend in the corners and change pace.
Her potential is clear. But no matter where she goes from here, tennis will never be quite the same, because her career was part of a family journey.
“I don’t think Amanda has gone through the mourning process completely,” Rodríguez said in Bradenton, Florida, where they were training at IMG Academy. “We have to be very careful and very sensitive and not rush things. The last few months, she has had a very difficult situation and not much time to react.”
Anisimova’s parents moved to the United States from Moscow in 1998 during a financial crisis in their home country.
They came, Konstantin Anisimov had said, in search of a better future for Maria, who was 10 at the time. They settled in Colts Neck, New Jersey, an affluent community known for its good school system. Maria, like her parents, spoke very little English at first, but as she learned she channeled some of her considerable energy into tennis.
In 2002, a year after Amanda was born, Maria persuaded her parents to drive the family south to Bradenton, where they made their first visit to IMG Academy, showing up unannounced at 4:30 a.m. to speak with the prominent coach Nick Bollettieri. There was no way to know that 17 years later the academy would become central to Amanda’s tennis development.
The family relocated to Miami in 2004, in part to help Maria pursue tennis more seriously, and the Anisimovs studied the game and began teaching. At first, Amanda imitated her older sister.
“If I was playing a tournament, Amanda would stand outside the fence of the court and mimic what I was doing,” Maria Egee said. “She had a little baby racket, and my parents said, ‘Right, we’ll take a shot at it.’”
Olga taught Amanda the fundamentals until she was 7, and Konstantin eventually took on the role of head coach.
“Both parents put so much into Amanda’s tennis,” said Nick Saviano, the veteran coach and a longtime adviser who was close with Konstantin Anisimov. “Its really exciting to see it all start to emerge and so very sad to know that Konstantin will not be there to enjoy seeing all his dreams come to fruition.”