Amanda Anisimova says she has no regrets about her decision to a break from tennis due to mental health reasons and hopes that speaking publically about the issue with help others.
Anisimova, who is a former French Open semi-finalist who has been ranked as high as 21st in the world, decided to step away from the sport last April. The 22-year-old said her decision to do so was due to depression and burnout. As a result, she dropped down the rankings to outside the world’s top 300.
Now on the comeback, the American returned to competitive tennis this week at the ASB Classic in Auckland where she was given a wildcard into the main draw. During her time away from the sport, she told reporters that she went on a road trip in America, visited friends in Europe and enrolled in a semester at university.
“I was happy that I was able to be honest about the reason why I was stepping away,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Anisimova as saying. “Just being vulnerable about it [was] kind of freeing and takes a little bit of weight off my shoulders and if I can help other people in knowing that they are not the only ones struggling, they are not alone in it. It was really good to post about it and give some insight into mental health and that it is really important and taking care of yourself always comes first.”
During her career so far, Anisimova has won two WTA titles and has reached the quarter-finals or better at two major events. She was coached by her father Konstantin until his sudden death a week before the start of the 2019 US Open. She is currently coached by Marc Lucero.
In her comeback tournament, the American has experienced mixed fortunes. After winning her opening match in straight sets against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, she suffered a 6-0, 6-1, loss to Marie Bouzková in the second round on Wednesday.
Anisimova admits she ‘wasn’t playing that great’ during her latest match whilst giving credit to her opponent. She also said the conditions in Auckland surprised her.
“I’ve consistently been playing well in practice and it was colder weather at night (on Monday), so the court was playing a bit different,” Anisimova explained.
“It was slower and I wasn’t expecting it to be so fast, so it caught me off guard and then after the match I realised a couple of things I wasn’t aware of when I was playing.”
Anisimova will play in the Australian Open main draw later this month with the help of her special ranking. It is a system where players who have been out of action for a long duration can re-enter events using the ranking that they had at the time the last they received prize money at an event.
