Amanda Anisimova started 2026 as world No. 3, fresh off a season that included two Grand Slam finals and two WTA 1000 titles. On Monday, she announced she won't play another match this year, ending her season early because of a recurring left wrist injury.
In between, she'll finish 2026 with zero finals reached, a 22-12 record, and a ranking that's about to fall outside the top 15 once her Beijing points expire — a stunning whiplash for a player who, twelve months ago, looked like one of the form players of the entire tour.
The announcement closes out a year that never really got started. Anisimova won't defend her Beijing title, won't play the Wuhan Open, and won't come anywhere close to qualifying for a season-ending WTA Finals she reached for the first time just last year. It's worth walking through exactly how a top-3 player ends up here by September.
The breakthrough that explains the whiplash
To understand how jarring 2026 has been, it helps to remember exactly what came before it. Anisimova's 2025 season included a WTA 1000 title in Doha in February, a second WTA 1000 title in Beijing in October (beating Linda Nosková in the final), and back-to-back Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open — the first at Wimbledon ending in a brutal 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Iga Swiatek, the second a competitive loss to Aryna Sabalenka in New York.
In 2023, Anisimova stepped away from tennis to focus on her mental health before returning at the beginning of 2024 and gradually rebuilding her ranking. Using a protected ranking to enter major tournaments, she began putting together stronger results, including a run to the quarterfinals of the DC Open and a surprise run to the final of the Canadian Open.
She finished 2024 inside the top 40 and entered 2025 ready to make another significant step forward. The momentum she built during the first half of the season eventually translated into her remarkable Wimbledon run, even though it ended with the historic defeat against Swiatek.
She also made her tour-level top-10 debut in 2025 and qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time, winning two matches in round-robin play to reach the semifinal. That run of results carried her to a career-high No. 3 on January 5, 2026, entering the new season as one of the sport's clearest contenders for a maiden Grand Slam title.
2026: a season that never got going
Almost none of that form carried over. Anisimova's best results this year were a semifinal in Dubai and quarterfinals at the Australian Open and in Cincinnati — a respectable spread of results for most players, but a sharp step down from a season that had produced two major finals and two WTA 1000 titles. She didn't reach a single final anywhere in 2026, a category where she'd been nearly automatic twelve months earlier.
The coaching situation mirrored the instability on court. Anisimova split from Hendrik Vleeshouwers, the Dutch coach behind her entire 2025 breakthrough, partnered briefly with German coach Sebastian Sachs, then reunited with Vleeshouwers again for the North American hard-court swing — a lot of change for a player trying to rediscover a level she'd only just found the year before.
Even her better weeks carried warning signs. The Dubai semifinal and the two major quarterfinals all arrived without the kind of statement win over a top rival that had defined her 2025 run, and each was followed by an early exit rather than the sustained momentum that had once carried her from one big result into the next.
Amanda Anisimova reached quarterfinals at the 2026 Australian Open
Anisimova’s end-year ranking
| Year | Ranking | Highlight |
| 2019 | No. 24 | French Open semifinal, first WTA title (Copa Colsanitas) |
| 2020 | No. 30 | French Open & US Open third round |
| 2021 | No. 78 | Just one victory at Grand Slam level, third round at 3 WTA 1000 tournaments (Indian Wells, Miami Open, Canadian Open) |
| 2022 | No. 23 | Melbourne Open title |
| 2023 | No. 369 | Steps away from courts (May) |
| 2024 | No. 36 | First WTA 1000 final (Canada) |
| 2025 | No. 4 | Two Grand Slam finals, two WTA 1000 titles. |
| 2026* | No. 11 (set to fall outside the top 20*) | Semifinals at WTA 1000 Dubai, quarterfinals at Australian Open |
The wrist injury timeline
The physical toll behind the decline became visible mid-season. A left wrist injury flared up around the time of the Sunshine Double in March, and Anisimova needed more than two months away from the tour to manage it, missing the entire clay swing, including the WTA 1000 events in Madrid and Rome. She returned for the grass and hard-court stretches of the year, but the wrist never fully settled, and her form never recovered to anything resembling 2025 either.
Her final competitive match of the season came at the US Open, where she suffered a third-round loss to Anastasia Potapova. From there, the withdrawals piled up quickly: she pulled out of the Singapore Open before her opening match, replaced in the draw by a lucky loser, then confirmed days later that she wouldn't defend her title in Beijing, the same tournament where she'd beaten Nosková in last year's final.
With the Wuhan Open the only WTA 1000 event left on the calendar and her Race position hopeless, ending the season entirely became the only remaining decision to make.
The numbers that tell the real story
Strip away the narrative and the season's statistical shape is stark. Anisimova played 34 matches in 2026 and finished with a 22-12 record, a solid but unremarkable return for a player who was, on paper, one of the eight best players in the world for most of the year. She reached zero finals, a category in which she had produced four just 12 months earlier.
She is set to finish the season 21st in the Race to the WTA Finals, having made her debut at the same event only a year ago. The contrast highlights the gap between where her ranking suggested she belonged and where her results actually left her in 2026. A player who entered the season at No. 3, by the numbers, performed more like a mid-ranked top-20 player for much of the year.
What is notable is how little of that gap can be explained by a single collapse. There was no signature bad loss that defined the season and no tournament where everything suddenly fell apart. Instead, it was an accumulation of good-but-not-great results, each one falling slightly short of what her 2025 breakthrough had led everyone to expect, before injuries further disrupted her campaign.
That combination gradually transformed a top-three season into a top-20 one. The decline was not dramatic from week to week, but the difference became increasingly difficult to ignore as the season progressed.
What's next
Anisimova has framed her decision plainly, writing that she needs to "get healthy, reset" and expressing her hope of returning at the 2027 Australian Open. If that timeline holds, she will have roughly four months to fully address a wrist injury that has already cost her the clay-court season and will now keep her out for the final part of the year.
It is also worth remembering that this is not the first time her career has required a reset. Anisimova stepped away from tennis in 2023 to focus on her mental health, before returning and beginning the rebuild that ultimately produced her breakthrough 2025 season. That history shows that she has already managed to come back from a significant setback and reach a higher level than before.
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Anisimova turned 25 on August 31 and, despite already having spent several years on the WTA Tour — she won her first title seven years ago — she still has plenty of time to add to what has already been an eventful career. Her return in 2027 could see her enter the Australian Open as a seeded player and potentially still inside the top 30.
The challenge will come quickly after that. Anisimova will begin defending points from the early stages of the 2027 season, meaning she will need strong results relatively early in the year to prevent another significant slide in the rankings. For now, however, the priority is simpler: get healthy, reset and try to rediscover the level that took her from a player rebuilding her career to world No. 3 in the space of 12 months.
Cristhián AvilaTennis Journalist
Cristhián Ávila is a tennis journalist based in Santiago, Chile, and has been part of the TennisUpToDate team since early 2023. He covers the ATP and WTA Tours as well as all four Grand Slams, producing breaking news, match reports, analysis, and regular liveblogs from major tournaments.
His reporting combines statistical analysis with clear explanation, helping readers understand tactical developments, player form, and broader storylines across the tour. Working fluently in both Spanish and English, Cristhián collaborates with an international editorial team and contributes to comprehensive global coverage. As part of his work, he has conducted interviews and media interactions with leading figures in the sport, including Caroline Wozniacki and John McEnroe.
In his journalism, Cristhián places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. His coverage is grounded in research, context, and direct engagement with professional tennis.
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tennishappens19-09-2026 - Serena Williams chose her tournaments. It's not such a bad idea.MuswellHillbilly17-09-2026
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