Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Anisimova pushing to build on her breakthrough year
PLANTATION — By any measure, Amanda Anisomova has had a year of notable achievement, regardless of how she fares this week in the Metropolia Orange Bowl Tennis Championships.
At 14 and the youngest player in the top 50 of the ITF world junior rankings, the long-time Hallandale Beach resident (now in Aventura) reached the finals of the French Open Junior Championships in June. She then made her pro debut as a wild-card entry in U.S. Open Qualifying and won her openinground match against the No. 17 seed.
Now 15, Anisimova’s win in the Yucatan Cup at Merida, Mexico, during Thanksgiving week was her second ITF title of the year (she won in Costa Rico in January).
The No. 2 seed in Girls 18s aims to carry momentum from that success to finish the year with back-toback titles. She began the quest with a quick and tidy 6-1, 6-1 win Monday against Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan at the Veltri Tennis Center.
“She’s pretty good, and I was just playing really well today,” Anisimova said after the dominant performance. “Just winning a tournament and coming here I have a lot of confidence. So I feel good. Playing here is great because it’s near where I live, so it would be nice to win here. Hopefully I can get really far.”
Anisimova’s coaches made it clear she should expect nothing less and strive to continue building on the impressive progress she made since losing in the first round of the Orange Bowl event a year ago.
“She’s had a very good year, but she’s aspiring to be a top world-class player. So she shouldn’t be surprised by those kinds of results,” coach Nick Saviano said. “She’s pursuing being the best she can be. Wherever that takes her in these tournaments, but she should expect to do well.
“She’s got potential to be a highly ranked world-class player.”
So Anisimova went directly from her match to the practice court for more work, hitting with another coach, Maxsim Fomine, who said: “No resting. She needs to push and push and push.”
With good reason. The No. 1 seed is Russia’s Anastasia Potapova, who eliminated her here last year in a three-set match drawn out by several rain delays.
Anisimova avenged that in the semifinals of the Junior French 7-6 (6), 6-2. Potapova, also 15 and No. 1 in the ITF rankings, has Wimbledon among several junior crowns during a banner season of her own and will be seeking to regain the upper hand. Potapova won Monday over American Maria Mateas, who retired in the second set while trailing 3-6, 1-2.
If this is to be viewed as a budding rivalry of up-andcoming women of shared heritage, Anisimova (American born to Russian parents) has plenty of incentive to push and push and push.
“As long as she does the fundamentals, she’s going to have a better year,” Fomine said. “What’s special is she has such a passion for the game. She loves coming out early and she puts in 110 percent every time. And she has such a great feel of the ball that not a lot of girls have.”
All of that was evident in a very businesslike dispatching of Kulambayeva, who is 16 and has more experience in pro competition. Playing on her favorite surface, clay, she coped well with windy conditions, getting her shots deep and well placed in the corners.
Konstantin Anisimov, her father and sometimes coach, pointed out that she will need to elevate her game during the week to stay on course for a possible finals showdown with Potapova.
“There’s a lot of good players. I think the key is you’ve got to play every point at a tournament at such level as the Orange Bowl,” Konstantin Anisimov said. “It’s like a grand slam for juniors. Everybody wants to win this title and there’s no easy way here. You can beat everybody and you can lose to everybody.”
No matter how this week turns out, Anisimova gained much more from this whirlwind year than what was recorded in the match results, as her father pointed out.
“I think the toughest part was learning how to travel: different countries, different conditions — the altitude in Mexico, for example, different food, different cultures,” he said. “I think it was probably the most important lesson in this last year, learning how to be a professional.”