Amanda Anisimova returns to Wimbledon this week carrying the weight of a 6-0 6-0 final loss to Iga Swiatek and the push to write a different ending. She said she is going in “excited to play and be healthy again,” after a year that also brought a left wrist injury and a coaching change.
Last year’s run was not a one-match story. She beat Aryna Sabalenka in a two-and-a-half hour semi-final to reach her first Grand Slam final, then lost to Swiatek in 57 minutes. That scoreline has not appeared in a Wimbledon ladies' singles final since 1911, and Anisimova said afterward, “I got a bit frozen with my nerves.”
Jackson at Centre Court
Jackson was a courtside regular during that Wimbledon run, a small family detail that sat against a very public collapse in the final. The contrast mattered because her results were unfolding in front of the same stands that watched her recover from a slow, grinding semi-final to the shortest possible final defeat.
At the next Grand Slam, the US Open in New York, she answered with a different result. She beat Swiatek in the quarter-finals and then beat Naomi Osaka to reach a second successive major final, a run that showed she could reset quickly after the Wimbledon result.
Indian Wells in March
In March, Anisimova told Sport at Indian Wells that the hardest part was managing her nerves and forgetting the past after a very quick turn around. She also said, “I was also enjoying it out there. I felt like once I went out there I didn't have the stress or any weight on my shoulders - maybe because I had a lot of people supporting me.”
That mental reset was not the only change. During the clay season this year, she missed two months with a left wrist injury, and she later parted ways with her coach during a difficult year. Those shifts left her preparing for Wimbledon without the clean runway she had hoped for after the US Open rebound.
Queen's and Wimbledon 2026
At Queen's, she lost in the quarter-finals but still said, “I'm going into this just excited to play and be healthy again.” Emma Raducanu said in California that “The way she has been competing for the past year, even when things don't go her way, made a difference,” and added that her focus and competitiveness had made a big difference.
That is the frame for Wimbledon now: a player who has already shown she can beat Sabalenka, recover against Swiatek, and reach another major final, but who is returning to the same tournament after the 6-0 6-0 scar, the wrist layoff and the coaching split. The next test is simple enough. Can she turn the memory into a result this week?
