Amanda Anisimova seemed to have ended up in a 'nightmare' in the Wimbledon final against Iga Swiatek: 6-0 and 6-0

Amanda Anisimova bounces the ball for about ten seconds, standing with her back to the court. She's taking a moment to rest on Wimbledon's Center Court, late Saturday afternoon. She breathes deeply. Talks herself up. She's just lost another rally to Iga Światek, a forehand landing at least a meter behind the baseline. Immediately afterward, Anisimova shakes her head.

The pressure from Swiatek (24) is scorching. Her serves, groundstrokes, returns, and volleys are so pure, hard, and sharp that Anisimova (23) barely has time. And no rhythm either. The fact that she's very nervous in her first Grand Slam final doesn't help her game either. She's down 6-0 and 2-0, 15-all on her own serve. If she wants to turn the final around, however complicated that scenario may be, she has to start now.

So, don't immediately fall behind by a double break, as happened in the first set. Swiatek is already ready to receive Anisimova's serve. The Polish five-time Grand Slam champion wants to keep the pace high to stay in her invincible state. Whereas Anisimova is trying to slow down the clock.

Just as she took a break from tennis two years ago to work on her mental health. "It has become unbearable to participate in tennis tournaments," she wrote on Instagram in May 2023. The burnout, as she called it, had been building up over the preceding years. Anisimova, the daughter of Russian parents who emigrated to the United States before her birth, was considered a super talent. In 2019, at seventeen, she reached the semifinals of Roland Garros.

The death of her father, Konstantin, in August 2019 after a heart attack, shortly before Anisimova's eighteenth birthday, changed much. He had long been her head coach, after her mother, Olga, had taught her the basics of tennis in her early years. "This is clearly the hardest thing that's ever happened to me, and I don't really talk about it with anyone," Anisimova told The New York Times in 2020.

During her break, she vacationed, visited friends, took a semester at university, and started painting. "What I learned is to listen honestly to yourself, to your intuition, and to what your body is telling you," she said last week in London. Her tennis break lasted eight months before returning to the tour in early 2024 as the world number 373.

That same year, she lost in qualifying for Wimbledon. But her results gradually improved. Earlier this year, she won a strong tournament in Doha, and more recently, she was a finalist at a grass court prep tournament. At Wimbledon itself, she impressed with her hard, flat shots, particularly in a brilliant semifinal battle against Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one. It was arguably the match of the tournament.

Punishment threatens

But now, in the final against Swiatek, she seems to have landed in a "nightmare," commentator and former player John McEnroe told the BBC. Swiatek—actually a clay-court specialist, having won Roland Garros four times—is playing a different kind of tennis in this tournament. In the semifinals, she defeated Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-0.

A similar punishment is looming now. That's why Anisimova tries to recover a bit when she serves at 0-2 and 15-15 in the second set. She actually does everything right on the next point. An excellent first serve, then a forehand deep into Swiatek's backhand corner. He saves with a high ball back, and Anisimova takes it in one go, which is technically challenging. The hesitation in her forehand is unmistakable – full out or not? She hits it low into the net. And then bends over dejectedly.

Anisimova's hesitation contrasts sharply with Swiatek's imperturbability. The Polish player, 6-0 and 4-0 down, still rallies as if a crucial point awaits. "Everything clicks," McEnroe tells the BBC. She plays with great aggression and control at the same time. Almost like a machine, so conscientious. While she previously struggled on grass, at Wimbledon she never made it past the quarterfinals.

Doubts about integrity

Swiatek's superiority was also preceded by a difficult period. Partly due to a doping suspension, she lost her top spot in the world rankings. Last fall, she was suspended for a month – missing three tournaments – after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. Swiatek successfully appealed: the tennis doping authority found it plausible that a contaminated substance – melatonin – containing traces of trimetazidine had been used.

Although the violation was deemed unintentional, Swiatek found the uncertainty surrounding the verdict and the doubts about her integrity difficult. "It was terrible," she said in January on the Tennis Insider Club podcast. Swiatek, herself a relatively reserved individual, feared that people would continue to hold a negative image of her and turn against her.

She didn't win another tournament after her suspension – her last title was Roland Garros last year. Now, Šwiatek serves for the Wimbledon title after just 57 minutes, for a rare 6-0, 6-0 victory in a Grand Slam final. Steffi Graf last achieved this at Roland Garros in 1988 against Natasha Zvereva. At Wimbledon, this tradition dates back to 1911, when Dorothea Lambert Chambers defeated Dora Boothby with such a " double bagel " – long before the professional era.

Even McEnroe is momentarily speechless on the BBC when Swiatek seals the match with a backhand winner. 6-0, 6-0. But the most impressive applause goes to Anisimova, as she tearfully thanks her mother in the stands. "She's the most selfless person I know; she's done everything to get me to this point in my life."