“I didn’t want to walk away”: Amanda Anisimova shares journey of returning to tennis after securing Wimbledon semifinal spot

America’s Amanda Anisimova has opened up about the journey of returning to tennis. The 23-year-old secured the semifinal spot at Wimbledon for the first time in her career after beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 7-6.

It is the second time that Anisimova has managed to secure a spot in the last four of a Grand Slam. The previous time was back in 2019, when she played in the semifinals of the French Open, where she lost to former world number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 6-3.

The recent result at Wimbledon is a special one for Anisimova, who just two years back announced that she would be taking an indefinite break from tennis, citing concerns about her mental health. That was not the first time Anisimova openly spoke about how challenging life is to be a professional tennis player.

In 2020, while speaking with The New York Times, Anisimova shared the difficulties she faced in her professional life. “This is obviously the hardest thing I’ve had to go through and the hardest thing that’s ever happened to me, and I don’t really talk about it with anyone,” she said back then. “The only thing that has helped me is just playing tennis and being on the court. That’s what makes me happy, and I know it would make him happy, so that’s the way it is.”

Anisimova recently spoke to ESPN, where she spoke at length about the journey of returning to the court after dealing with mental health issues. Anisimova was of the opinion that dealing with ‘mental health’ is as important as taking care of your ‘physical health’.

“I always knew deep down that no matter how long I was going to take off, I was going to come back to the tour,” she said. “I still felt like there were so many things I wanted to achieve in the sport. Winning a Slam is definitely one of them, and I didn’t want to walk away so early after sacrificing so much of my life and working so hard. Once I came back, I found this new passion for it. I feel like it’s a passion I didn’t feel back then or maybe when I was a teenager. Every win is that much more special now. I feel like just me being honest and vulnerable about a topic that might be a bit stigmatized in a way, I think that was super important. And for other people to have a different outlook or perspective on, you can struggle with your mental health. It’s just as important as your physical health. Especially when it comes to sports and pursuing this as a career. The lifestyle can be different if you don’t find that right balance. It can get lonely at times. We’ve seen a lot of players struggle with that. It’s a super important thing. It’s important to have fun on and off the court.”