By Chris Oddo | Wednesday January 16, 2019
The youngest player left in the women’s singles draw in Melbourne is suddenly garnering a lot of attention after a dominant 6-0, 6-2 victory over Lesia Tsurenko on Day 3.
That would be 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova, who entered the week having never won a main draw match at a major before.
A lot can change in three days and it certainly has for the New Jersey native. After defeating the terribly tricky Monica Niculescu in straight sets on Day 1, Anisimova dispatched a talented veteran who had started her year by making a run to the Brisbane final where she was barely edged by Karolina Pliskova.
It was incredible how quickly and decisively she pummeled Tsurenko. The Ukrainian is a cagy tactician and a solid mover but there was not a lot she could do to derail the smooth, powerful ground game that the coltish American produced. Anisimova made a name for herself last year at Indian Wells when she upset Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Petra Kvitova—snapping the Czech’s 14-match winning streak and earning her first Top 10 win in the process.
That mini-run raised a lot of eyebrows, but Anisimova fell beneath the strain of the tour shortly thereafter and needed several months to make her return to the tour. Still, the promise was there, even if the physicality lagged.
Some players wait well into their 20s, even 30s to notch a Top 10 win. Anisimova had one at 16. And as the youngest player remaining in the draw, she’ll bid for the second week in Melbourne when she faces Aryna Sabalenka in the third round.
The Belarusian will be the heavy favorite, but as we get to know Anisimova, we know she’ll relish the opportunity to exchange weapons-grade groundies with one of the hardest hitters on tour.
The daunting pace and the power of the World No.11 probably won’t put Anisimova off—but the grinding physicality of Sabalenka just might. Even if the American can’t handle it, it will be another valuable lesson for the teenager—not that she’s needed many lessons to start making her presence felt on the WTA Tour. As the youngest player in the Top 100, Anisimova has proven to be an incredibly fast learner.
And she's not the only one hanging around this year's Australian Open draw.
Anisimova is one of five teenagers remaining in the women’s singles draw (a total of 9 entered). She’s joined by fellow 17-year-old Anastasia Potapova, who faces Madison Keys tomorrow, 17-year-old Iga Swiatek of Poland, who faces Camila Giorgi, as well as 18-year-old Dayana Yastremska (faces Suarez Navarro on Day 4) and 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu (faces Sevastova on Day 4).
All five of the aforementioned players have won their first main draw match at a major this week, and all five are hungry for more.
Together these rising talents form a formidable quintet of players that seem dead-set on making the talented and deep draws at Grand Slams even deeper and more talented.
It’s a brilliant time to be a women’s tennis fan—parity has arrived at the top of the rankings and there are currently eight players still in the hunt to claim the No.1 ranking at the end of the fortnight, and though it may be a while, the teenagers in this year’s draw (as well as 20-year-old Sabalenka and 21-year-old Naomi Osaka) are proving that the new crop of youngsters could indeed be game-changers on a larger scale.
Could we be seeing a shift in what is possible for young players? Teenagers used to rule the majors, but since Maria Sharapova won the U.S. Open in 2006, it has not happened.
Whether a new reality is upon us or not, tennis fans would be wise to pay attention over the next few days when these precocious talents take the court. It's amazing to see new talent, fresh and effervescent, take punches at established players. And who knows, maybe the time for a teenage Slam winner has arrived again.