ANISIMOVA LOOKING TO GET BACK ON THE WINNING TRACK
MONTREAL Amanda Anisimova is hoping a strong showing at the National Bank Open will get her once promising career back on track.
The 19-year-old American reached the second round Monday at Jarry Park when fellow qualifier Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic succumbed to the heat while trailing 6-1, 4-3.
Anisimova was viewed as the future of women's tennis in the U.S. when she upset Simona Halep to reach the semifinals of the French Open as a 17-year-old in 2017 and was perched just outside the top 20 in the WTA rankings.
But she has experienced a series of injury-related setbacks as well as a bout of COVID-19 that kept her out of the Australian Open in January and she arrived in Montreal ranked No. 89 in the world.
“I've had injuries in the past couple of years. But thank God nothing has been too serious. I was able to overcome them,” said Anisimova, who said she's feeling stronger after adding fitness coach Rob Brandsma to her team.
“I think it was good that I got a couple of matches in (qualifying),” said Anisimova. “I have a couple of matches to back me up and give me some confidence in the main draw.
“I think I was playing well today,” she added. “My opponent wasn't feeling too good. I feel sorry for her and I hope she feels better. I'll build on the last three matches and I'm looking forward to my next round.”
That will see her face another qualifier in Oceane Dodin of France. Dodin registered the first upset of the tournament when she beat 14th seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.
As for making another run at the top 20, Anisimova said: “At this point, I'm just really taking it one match at a time. I really want to have a good run here. I think I'm ready for that. I think my game is there. I'm feeling good physically and mentally. I'm really hoping I'll have a good run in this US Open Series.”
Maria Sakkari, the 11th seed from Greece, was leading Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 3-1 when the Czech player retired.
Bouzkova, who upset Sloane Stephens and Simona Halep to reach the semifinals in Toronto two years ago, took two injury timeouts in the first set and packed it in after Sakkari broke her serve in the fourth game of the second set.
“My game wasn't there but I kept fighting,” said Sakkari, who said she was comfortable playing in the humid 30 C heat.
Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, relies on her serve and an aggressive, take-no-prisoners style. Neither was working in the Latvian's match against Czech Katerina Siniakova.
Ostapenko held her serve only once en route to a 6-1, 6-3 loss. She put only 46 per cent of her first serves into play and won only a third of those points.
She made 38 unforced errors and was frustrated by Siniakova who not only ran down what appeared to be winning shots, but turned them into winners.
“I know she's a dangerous player and I just tried to hit as many shots as possible,” said Siniakova, who is better known as a doubles player. She teamed with Barbora Krejcikova to win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and they have also won three Grand Slam titles.
Krejcikova, who won this year's French Open and made her debut in the top 10 in the WTA singles rankings this week, elected not to play in Montreal.
Nadia Podoroska, a late bloomer from Argentina, continued her rise in the rankings with a 6-1,
6-2 win over Magda Linette of Poland.
The 24-year-old Podoroska has spent most of her career playing on the ITF Challenger circuit, but she broke through into the top 100 last October when she qualified for the French Open and then stormed through to the semifinals before she lost to eventual champion Iga Swiatek.
Fiona Ferro of France advanced when Australian Ajla Tomljanovic retired with a right hip injury. Tomljanovic won the first set 6-2 but lost the second by the same score and was unable to continue. phickey@postmedia.com twitter.com/zababes1