"A perfect example": Patrick McEnroe praises Amanda Anisimova for becoming 'better person' after dealing with mental health issues

Former American player Patrick McEnroe has credited America’s Amanda Anisimova for dealing with mental health issues and returning to the court in the best possible shape and form. The 24-year-old took indefinite break from tennis in May 2023 to deal with mental health issues.

“Hey guys. I thought I'd make a post explaining what's been going on and my plans. I've really been struggling with my mental health and burnout since the summer of 2022. It's become unbearable being at tennis tournaments,” wrote Anisimova back in May 2023. “At this point my priority is my mental well-being and taking a break for some time. I've worked as hard as I could to push through it. I will miss being out there, and I appreciate all the continuous support."

Sher returned to the court in January 2024 and, since then, has produced some impressive performances. Last year, Anisimova featured in 34 matches and won 21 of them. This year, her performances have improved even further as she has won 39 out of 55 matches.

In February earlier this year, Anisimova lifted the Qatar Open in Doha after beating Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3. Other than that, Anisimova has been in great for in the Grand Slam tennis as well. She played in the final of the last two Grand Slams this year.

At Wimbledon, Anisimova had a disappointing outing as she lost to Poland’s Iga Swiatek in the final without winning a single game. The final score of the match was 6-0, 6-0. A few months later, at the US Open, Anisimova once again played in the final but ended up losing, this time to the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets, with a score of 6-3, 7-6.

Former American player and the brother of the former world number one John McEnroe, Patrick, has recently appeared on The Daily Show, where he spoke at length about tennis players dealing with mental health issues. Patrick stated that, with tennis being an ‘individual sport’, a lot of players deal with mental health issues because they are going to lose more matches than they win. Patrick was of the opinion that during his playing days, talking about mental health was considered taboo. Patrick said that he was glad that players, the former world number one, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, and Anisimova, have openly spoken about the issue. Patrick stated that in his view, Anisimova is a ‘great’ example for other players, as not only did she openly talk about it, but she also battled it and became a better person.

“There is a lot of pressure in tennis being such an individual sport, you can’t escape it,” said Patrick “Even me as a world number 28, I walked away once in my life as a professional having not lost. I only won one singles tournament. But the point is that you lose a lot in tennis so you have to deal with it. The truth is that that’s been going on forever. I actually am really glad that players like Naomi Osaka and Amanda Anisimova are talking about mental health. It used to be, if you talk about [mental health], you are a wuss. You know you don’t talk about the fact that you are struggling mentally. You know that shows that you are not tough or whatever that may be. So those things have always happened but I think its really healthy that the players are not shy about discussing it. And I think Amanda is a perfect example of someone that dealt with it, you know, kind of confronted it head on and then it made her, I think, a better person and a better player.”