On a quiet outside clay court at the Hungarian national tennis centre in Budapest nine years ago a pair of outstanding 15-year-olds tussled in front of a few dozen spectators. Although the duel offered glimpses into the potential from both sides of the net, Iga Swiatek defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 6-2 en route to Poland’s triumph over the US in the Junior Fed Cup. Even though Anisimova endured a difficult afternoon, memories of those days immediately drew a smile to her face. “I used to enjoy those Fed Cup trips a lot,” she says. “We had a lot of fun.
“She was playing very well. She was a great junior – I remember a lot of coaches were saying that she’s going to be a big deal one day. They were right.”
Many coaches said similar things about Anisimova in those days and their instincts were also correct. On Saturday Swiatek and Anisimova, now 24 and 23, will meet in the Wimbledon singles final. Despite being born three months apart, this will be their first professional meeting.
For both of them this has been a long time coming. During their time as juniors, Anisimova immediately flitted ahead of her contemporaries. She was a junior US Open champion in 2017, at the age of 16, and by the time Swiatek won her junior grand slam title at Wimbledon a year later, Anisimova had graduated to the professional tours.
Her first peak was marked by an unforgettable semi-final run at the 2019 French Open and it seemed inevitable that her success would continue. At the same tournament, Swiatek had her own modest breakthrough as she reached the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time. Although she was the first from their age group to make it to the highest levels of the sport, Anisimova’s rapid rise soon halted. She struggled with the gruelling nature of being a professional and with grief after her father’s death, taking an eight-month mental health break before returning at the beginning of last year.
Her performances this year have shown the importance of taking a step back and moving at your own pace instead of constantly looking to push through difficulties and pain. With her run this week, she will break into the top 10 from her ranking of 12, rising at least to No 7.
Anisimova has peerless shot-making abilities – almost nobody on the tour is blessed with her timing, clean technique and hand-eye coordination, which allow her to generate such destructive power from all parts of the court with ease. Yet the biggest revelation on the way to a maiden grand slam final has been the American’s competitive abilities and toughness.
For much of her career, her talent has been in dialogue with her mental and physical vulnerabilities. After managing the pressure of being the heavy favourite in every match en route to the semi-finals, she was tough in the many moments Sabalenka could have turned the match again.
While Anisimova’s path became difficult, Swiatek kept on rising. She is the greatest player of her generation, a five-time grand slam champion. Despite the past 12 months marking one of the most challenging periods she arrived here ranked No 3 in the world.
Swiatek’s inability to win a fourth consecutive French Open title, it turns out, has been a blessing in disguise. Instead of catching her breath after yet another French Open title, her relative underperformance on clay allowed her to immediately prepare for the grass-court season. The additional time on the surface has allowed her to gain more comfort than ever before.
Swiatek’s 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Belinda Bencic in the semi-finals was the type of dominant performance she has inflicted on almost every opponent on other surfaces.
Anisimova is one of the few not to have faced Swiatek’s wrath as a professional and the lack of familiarity between them adds a layer of mystique to this encounter. In many ways, Anisimova fits the profile of the type of opponent Swiatek can sometimes be vulnerable to on faster surfaces. She is a devastating shotmaker who can take returns early, rob Swiatek of time with her early, flat ball-striking and flatten the Pole’s second serve.
However, Swiatek’s tendency to rise up and produce her best on the biggest occasions speaks for itself. She is 5-0 in grand slam finals and 16-2 in big finals, matches that often have not been close.
Although Swiatek and Anisimova have taken different paths since those days in Budapest, they have backed up their early promise and established themselves on the biggest stages.
Now they will renew their nine-year rivalry with everything on the line.
