Double bagel tough to digest, but Anisimova feeds off the positives

There were two so-called 'double bagels' at this year's Wimbledon — the term used to describe a match ending 6-0, 6-0 — and Amanda Anisimova of the United States starred in both.

The first one launched the 23-year-old on the path to her first Grand Slam final, as she thrashed Yulia Putintseva.

Sadly for her, she was on the receiving end of the second, and it came at the worst possible time.

In front of a sweltering Centre Court crowd and millions of television viewers in Saturday's final, her hopes of winning the title evaporated in 57 cruel minutes, as she was put through the wringer by Poland's Iga Swiatek.

The only other time a Wimbledon singles final was decided by a 6-0, 6-0 scoreline was in 1911 when Dorothea Lambert Chambers beat fellow British player Dora Boothby.

Before Saturday, it had happened only once at any of the other Grand Slam finals, in 1988 when Steffi Graf demolished Natasha Zvereva in 34 minutes at the French Open. At least Anisimova almost stretched it to an hour.

It is customary in tennis finals these days for the runner-up to say a few words before the champion.

Anisimova probably wished Centre Court would open up and swallow her as she answered questions from former British player Annabel Croft, managing to hold herself together enough to say a few coherent words through the tears.

Later, in the relative sanctuary of the media conference room, she was reflective as she spoke of how she had been frozen by nerves in the biggest match of her career.

"It was tough to digest, it's not how I would have wanted my first Grand Slam final to go, I think I was in shock afterwards. It's not an easy thing to go through, losing 0 and 0."

A sense of perspective is perhaps easier for a player who was marked out as a future Grand Slam champion as a teenager, but who needed to step away from the game for eight months in 2023 as she struggled with burnout and mental health issues.

Last year, ranked 189th, she did not even feature at Wimbledon, losing in the third round of qualifying.

So, despite how it ended, Anisimova preferred to try and take the positives from a run that included a scintillating semifinal win against world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

"I feel like, in the last two weeks, if anything, what I've learned is you're never going to be perfect, and every match is different," Anisimova said.

"My fighting spirit has gotten me to the final today. It wasn't me playing perfectly. There were matches where I struggled and I wasn't playing to my full potential. I think just staying focused and fighting my way through certain moments, and lifting myself up and trying to not get negative on myself, was the most important thing.

"I think that's really what got me to the final."

Reuters