TORONTO — Amanda Anisimova took a seat as the unpredictable wind continued to swirl.
Having dominated the first set and on her heels in the second, the 22-year-old ascending the WTA Tour ladder following an eight-month break to work on her mental health had finally been granted a medical timeout to deal with a blister.
As the trainer taped that bothersome left foot just off Centre Court, Anisimova did her best to regroup.
“Trying to relax and calm my nerves,” said the 132nd-ranked player entering this week. “Telling myself to stay calm and just try and push through.”
The pain — and the adversity — was quickly brushed aside.
Anisimova upset fellow American and No. 8 seed Emma Navarro 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 on Sunday to make the women’s singles final at the National Bank Open.
“Huge accomplishment,” she said. “Something I’ve been working really hard towards.”
Anisimova will face defending champion and No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula of the U.S. in Monday’s red, white and blue finale at Sobeys Stadium after she topped No. 14 Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-4, 6-3.
“Good to see her back playing top tennis,” Pegula said of her compatriot. “She’s probably one of the biggest, cleanest ball strikers I’ve ever played against.”
Ranked No. 6 overall, Pegula improved to 16-2 at the NBO, including last year’s victory that followed back-to-back semifinal appearances.
Anisimova, meanwhile, was the lowest-ranked player to make the Canadian semis since Sloane Stephens (No. 934) in 2017. She also picked up her fourth victory against a top-20 opponent in Toronto after previously taking down No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 12 Daria Kasatakina and No. 17 Anna Kalinskaya.
“I was trying to fight,” Anisimova said. “I’m just happy with how I was able to pull through.”
Her time away from the game — she didn’t play competitively from May 2023 until January’s Australian Open — included going to college for a semester and getting to experience “a normal life” after early career success that included making the 2019 French Open semis at age 17.
Anisimov, however, was always going to get back swinging a racket.
“I didn’t want to finish my career on that note,” she said. “I had sacrificed so much and given so much to the sport.”
Shnaider, the tour’s 24th-ranked player, upset No. 1 seed Coco Gauff and topped No. 6 Liudmila Samsonova before running into Pegula at the US$3.2-million event.
The 30-year-old American broke her opposite with the second set tied 3-3 and clinched the match on a long rally.
“I played really smart,” said Pegula, who faced the 20-year-old for the first time. “Had to adapt a little bit, but I’m proud that I was able to figure that out.”
Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe will face Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk in Monday’s doubles final after getting past Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and younger sister Bianca 6-2, 6-4.
“Super happy,” said the 32-year-old Dabrowski, who won mixed doubles bronze for Canada at the Paris Olympics with Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime. “We played a lot more clinical than our other matches … to change that within basically one or two days, great improvement.”
Anisimova picked up 12 of the first 13 points against the 15th-ranked Navarro to take a 3-0 lead in a dominant first set after the match was delayed an hour by rain.
The swirling winds at York University on Toronto’s northern boundary have been a story all week, but were an even bigger factor Sunday with gusts of more than 40 km/h.
Anisimova said the “stressful” conditions played a big role.
“So difficult,” she said. “We did our best.”
With both players taking part in their first WTA 1000 semifinal — one level below the four majors — the 23-year-old Navarro earned two breaks to nudge ahead 4-2 in the second set, and held serve to grab another game before Anisimova called for a trainer to tape that blister.
“I was kind of pissed that I didn’t get a medical timeout earlier,” said Anisimova, who was subsequently broken again to end the set. “It had been bothering me for quite some time.”
Coming off a quarterfinal appearance in Washington, she ignored the discomfort and went from down love-40 to deuce with Navarro serving tied 1-1 in the third set before breaking her opponent.
Anisimova picked up another break to go up 5-2 and sealed things with an ace to secure her spot in the final.
“When she’s hitting her spots she’s really, really tough,” Navarro said. “She can take any ball that her opponent hits and rip to either corner.”
Anisimova, who lost to Pegula in a third-set tiebreak earlier this year, will look to keep that momentum going Monday as she continues her WTA climb.
“I’m pretty surprised with how well I’ve been able to do,” she said. “I’m still hungry for more.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2024.
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