Refreshed Anisimova hitting her stride at National Bank Open

TORONTO — At this time last year, Amanda Anisimova was 21 years old and taking a break from professional tennis because her mental health was suffering due to burnout.

Now, little more than a year after she stepped away, the 22-year-old has cracked her first-ever Masters 1000 semifinal, and her first semifinal at any level in two years. And she took down the World No. 3 player to get there.

“It feels amazing,” a smiling Anisimova said of the achievement.

On Saturday evening on the Sobeys Stadium center court, the American earned a straight-sets upset over the National Bank Open’s No. 2 seed, Aryna Sabalenka, with a 6-4, 6-2 win that saw Anisimova’s power on display, as she rifled winners down the line off Sabalenka’s serve.

“I’ve been working really hard the last few months, and I think it’s my first time in the semis of a 1000, so I’m really happy with the result,” said Anisimova, who’s currently ranked 132nd in the world. “I’m just really proud of myself, and I’m really looking forward to [Sunday].”

That’s when she’ll face fellow American, Emma Navarro, the tournament’s eighth seed, in the semifinal set for 5 pm ET.

To get there, Anisimova had to take out the highest-ranked player left in the National Bank Open. She earned a break in the first set to take it 6-4, and when Sabalenka’s shot hit the net to end the set, she smashed her racquet into the Sobeys Stadium center court. Anisimova then took command to take the second set 6-2.

“I was just trying to play smart and try to make as little mistakes as possible,” Anisimova said. “Then in the second set I think I really stepped it up, and overall I’m really happy with how I played today.”

Overall, too, Anisimova is happy playing this game again. She stepped away from tennis in May of 2023, and returned for this season.

“I think that after the break I felt very refreshed and just had a different kind of head space, like more clarity. I just was very burnt out before I took the break, so coming back I was enjoying it a lot more, and the training and all the process — I had a different perspective for it,” she said.

“As I said, I’m just really happy to be back, and I think taking the break really just helped me, because I honestly never took a break that was longer than like two weeks in my life, so I think I just needed that as a human being to just rest for once and just let my body recover.”

Anisimova now boasts an impressive 5-2 record against Sabalenka, who was ranked No. 1 last year. One of those wins came when Anisimova was just 17 and upset the Belarusian at the 2019 Australian Open. (Sabalenka is now the reigning and back-to-back champion of that major). That same year Anisimova beat then-world No. 3 Simona Halep at the French Open, becoming the tournament’s youngest semifinalist in more than a decade.

Back then, she was ranked a career-high 21st in the world, and she’s now focused on earning her way back up the rankings.

On Saturday night she made big strides in that direction, making good on four out of five break points in the match. Meanwhile, Sabalenka managed just one of six break points, and had eight double faults in the match that took just under an hour and a half. The upset of the No. 2 seed came a night after No. 1 seed Coco Gauff was knocked out.

And with the win, Anisimova has reached one “small goal” she set for herself this season, which was to break into the WTA’s top 100.

“It's just small steps in the right direction to hopefully achieve the things that I want to be able to achieve, like winning a Grand Slam, and becoming No. 1 one day,” she said. “I hope that with all the training I do and staying healthy I can get to that point.”

The next step in her journey comes Sunday, when the American will try to advance to her first-ever Masters 1000 final.