"She reminds me of Lindsay Davenport": Martina Navratilova lauds Amanda Anisimova, runs rule over Americans ahead of WTA Finals

With a heavy contingent of top Americans at the WTA Finals only really discluding Emma Navarro who almost made it last year, it is in the main most of the top stars from the US in Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova, Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula who will play in Riyadh.

Gauff is of course defending champion but it was Anisimova who came out with the highest praise from the legendary Martina Navratilova during a WTA feature where she also spoke on the chances of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek and the other top eight now concluded finalised by Elena Rybakina and Jasmine Paolini.

But reaching two major finals, Anisimova has been the comeback player of the year and Navratilova lauded her not only for bouncing back from personal issues, high expectations but also losing a major final in the way she did at Wimbledon.

“Oh my goodness. She has been through so much -- losing her father and dealing with everything else that came with that. The expectations were big, almost on par with Mirra Andreeva and Coco Gauff now," said Navratilova to WTA.

"Big things were expected of her and she tried to grow into that. Sometimes the pressure is too much if the results don’t come on the timeline people expect. It gets tricky. There were injuries, too.

“Now everything just came together for her this year and it’s great to see because she’s such a nice person. She hits a heavy ball. She reminds me of Lindsay Davenport. That Wimbledon loss had to be sitting in the back of her mind, but she beat Iga in the US Open semifinal and played well in the final. That’s a hard one to bounce back from, but she did it.

“She hits such a clean ball. It’s a pleasure to watch from a purist’s point of view. She’s accurate on both sides and takes time away. If I were serving to her, I’d just go body, body, body, because you don’t want to give her a free swing.”

Coco Gauff is the defending champion and Navratilova said if her serve is figured out she could be hard to beat again in Riyadh holding all the keys you need if on.

“She’s played nine hard-court finals and won them all. That’s crazy. One of those was last year in Riyadh, so look out if she gets rolling again. Her backhand is like Djokovic’s -- maybe with even more power. It’s money.

“When the serve is happening, it’s a real weapon, and I’m glad she’s figuring that out. Her movement is better than anybody else. She can always depend on that. It’s the one thing fully under her control. She knows she can run and defend no matter what. Then she manages the rest. When she comes forward, she has a very good volley and it’s hard to get the ball past her. She just won in Wuhan, so she should be confident.”

Jessica Pegula on the theme of being compared was seen as an Aga Radwanska type and despite being dubbed a late bloomer is seen as someone who is mixing up her game.

“She’s been picking it up. She’s adapted her game to be more aggressive, going for her shots, coming forward more, using the drop shot. She hits a nice ball, not too much topspin or slice when she’s in rhythm. Now she’s mixing it up much better -- the drop shot, coming in, the low-bouncing slice.

“She’s a relatively late bloomer, but she changed her game and it’s paid off. She wants the ball coming onto her racquet so she can redirect, kind of like Radwanska. In slow conditions, she has to create her own pace, and in China she was swinging harder at everything -- her serve, her groundstrokes. When the court is slow, she can really whale away.”

While Madison Keys was heavily lauded for plotting her destiny down to taking the last few months off to be ready for her title defence in January and that perhaps she should've done more since than she has.

“We were all pulling for her. I cried when she won the Australian Open. I was so happy for her. I thought she’d be a massive force after that because so much of her challenge was emotional. The game has always been there.

“She changed her racquet and strings, but she also changed her attitude, and that was the biggest shift. She was much more consistent in Australia. It’s been two months since she’s played a match and there’s nothing wrong with that. She decided it was a good time to take a break, train for this tournament and be physically ready for Australia. That’s smart short-term and long-term thinking.

“She gave herself permission not to play. I wish I had done that. She should be fresh and sharp. She’ll like this surface. It suits her.”