{"id":11656,"date":"2019-01-18T02:57:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T07:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=11656"},"modified":"2019-01-18T04:38:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T09:38:20","slug":"the-big-stage-is-no-big-deal-for-amanda-anisimova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2019\/01\/18\/the-big-stage-is-no-big-deal-for-amanda-anisimova\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Stage is No Big Deal for Amanda Anisimova"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Amanda Anisimova Takes Out #11 Seed Aryna Sabalenka in Straight Sets<\/h4>\n<p>Walking onto <em>Margaret Court Arena<\/em>, oddsmakers gave the 17-year-old &#8220;Jersey Girl&#8221; a slender 9% chance of winning the match. Turns out they were 100% wrong. The aggressive baseliner, Amanda Anisimova, took out #11 seed Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>America&#8217;s rising star is moving on to the fourth round.<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>Anisimova\u2019s win today was definite and commanding: <strong>6-3 6-2<\/strong>.\u00a0She simply blasted the ball and was not intimidated by the big venue nor, the big challenge. Effortless power combined with amazing angles left her opponent frustrated. Out of sorts, and understandably so, Sabalenka had no answer.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed nearly every shot, Animisova was in position and ready to strike. Even when being run side-to-side, she found a way to hit a winner. Perhaps it was her own lack of variety; though a guess is Sabalenka never expected to see the depth and weight of shot off both Anisimova\u2019s wings.<\/p>\n<p>By the second set, it took incredible effort for Sabalenka to even win a point. Anisimova looked at home on this big stage. Sabalenka is only 20 years old, and surely she and Anisimova will meet up another 10 to 20 times during their career. It\u2019ll be interesting to see what lessons Sabalenka learns from today\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n<h3>The next teenage Slam Champion?<\/h3>\n<p>In her post-match interview, when asked how she felt, Anisimova said it was an \u201cUnreal feeling, I can\u2019t believe this is happening. I can\u2019t believe I got through this round.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her answer belied the confidence she showed on court. You\u2019d expect the nerves to kick in the closer\u00a0Amanda Anisimova moved to the finish line. Would she realize how big a moment this was? It didn&#8217;t happen.<\/p>\n<p>Anisimova showed the composure of someone who\u2019d been there before. Citing Maria Sharapova as the player she looks up to, Anisimova hopes to follow in Maria\u2019s footsteps.\u00a0 Not since 2006 has a teenager (Sharapova) won a Major. It\u2019s clear the young American is gunning to fill this role.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here she is.<\/p>\n<p>The first player born in the 2000s to reach the round of 16 at a major.<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Anisimova. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AusOpen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#AusOpen<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NbPmkP22dU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/NbPmkP22dU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Biola Solace-Chukwu (@Beeorlicious) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Beeorlicious\/status\/1086123016134774784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Amanda Anisimova &#8211; her Tennis road so far<\/h3>\n<p>Anisimova started this tournament pitted against Monica Niculescu. Not many thought Anisimova had the experience to get past the tricky <em>slice<\/em> for which the Romanian is known. But, find a way she did taking her opening match 7-6 6-4.<\/p>\n<p>Her second round opponent was Leisa Tsurenko. The Ukranian veteran was a finalist at the Brisbane International just a few weeks and was predicted to be a tough opponent. In just 54 minutes, the American teenager pummeled Tsurenko, 6-0 6-2.<\/p>\n<h3>What\u2019s next for Anisimova at the <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian Open<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Anisimova will be waiting for the winner of the match between #8 seed Petra Kvitova and Swiss shotmaker Belinda Bencic. Oddsmakers visibly favor Kvitova \u2013 she\u2019s one of the hotter players in the tournament. During her second-round match, Kvitova converted all five of her break points.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the opponent, Anisimova appears to be ready for the challenge. Win or lose in the fourth round, we\u2019re definitely looking at a future Slam champion in the form of Amanda Anisimova.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"oUoLPvYjTPJW1AUvVx-zDQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.nz\/detail\/1084419326\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'oUoLPvYjTPJW1AUvVx-zDQ',sig:'G9fhFJsvDqjvVX7yUVJWfdyeHKSnNfdvUXKeW3TB_dI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1084419326',caption: true ,tld:'co.nz',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amanda Anisimova Takes Out #11 Seed Aryna Sabalenka in Straight Sets Walking onto Margaret Court Arena, oddsmakers gave the 17-year-old &#8220;Jersey Girl&#8221; a slender 9% chance of winning the match. Turns out they were 100% wrong. The aggressive baseliner, Amanda Anisimova, took out #11 seed Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets. America&#8217;s rising star is moving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":11661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[4066,2746,1766,4457,4455,894],"class_list":["post-11656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australian-open","category-wta","tag-2019-australian-open","tag-amanda-anisimova","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-leisa-tsurenko","tag-margaret-court-arena","tag-maria-sharapova"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}