Teen new world star in making
The crowd at the ASB Classic in Auckland may have witnessed one of the next great stars of tennis yesterday.
Seventeen-year-old American Amanda Anisimova defeated Czech veteran and No 5 seed Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-3 on a blustery Centre Court.
Anisimova is the youngest player in the top 100, ranked 96 in the world, and was given a wildcard to the Classic by tournament director Karl Budge.
The world No 33 from the Czech Republic battled hard in this second round match, as she always does, but there was that class about Animisova that showed she could be something special.
She looked composed on the court and as well as being able to hit for power, she uses the angles well, to open up the court and then rip a winner with her next shot. Strycova is too good a player for Anisimova to thrash at this stage of her career, but this was an impressive performance from her and a match she always looked line winning.
The Classic has had a number of players in recent years who've gone on to great things, like winning grand slams, including Naomi Osaka and Jelena Ostapenko. Come next year Anisimova could be added to that list.
"I'm really happy with that match," Anisimova told Stuff.
"Barbora is a really good player, so I was expecting a tough fight and I was expecting to be at my peak physically."
Anisimova said what pleased her most about her performance was being switched on for the entire match.
"I was just focussing on every single point and trying not to give away anything, because we were having very close games," she said.
"It could have turned at any point in the match, so just keeping my focus."
As Anisimova continues to rise, it's victories like this that go down as another milestone reached, showing that she has the game to beat players who've been on the circuit for over a decade.
"She's definitely really experienced," Anisimova said.
"Playing these players is a great opportunity for me to learn from them and compete against them, so it's very exciting every time I get to play them."
As well as how she played, something else that stood out was how she kept her composure on the court. Strycova is a player known for not being able to control her emotions in matches and it was Anisimova who was able to stay composed and not give out any bad body language.
"I've had to work on that a lot," she said. "I wasn't like that from day one and definitely it helps me and I feel like it's hard on my opponents when I keep my composure like that, so it's a huge plus for me."
In Friday's quarterfinal, Anisimova will play Viktoria Kuzmova from Slovakia who earlier on Thursday beat fellow 20-year-old Sofia Kenin from America 7-5 5-7 6-3.
The match lasted just over 21⁄4 hours, with the standout statistic being Kuzmova serving 20 aces, compared to just three from Kenin.