Playing her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova was absolutely brutal against Simona Halep, needing only 68 minutes to overpower the in-form defending champion 6-2 6-4 in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros.
In only her fourth appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam, the 51st-ranked Anisimova displayed incredible confidence and dominance against the world No.3 Halep. The American of Russian descent earned her first break point when Halep double-faulted in the sixth game and then converted it when the Romanian favorite sent a shot long. The youngster won seven games in a row from 2-2 in the first set to 3-0 in the second.
The third-seeded Halep did fight back to get the second set back on serve, leveling to 4-4, but Anisimova kept her nerves under control, held serve to lead 5-4 and then broke Halep once again to advance to the semifinals on her first match point. Anisimova earned that match point with Halep’s double fault and converted it by crushing a daring backhand in the corner.
In the quarterfinal played simultaneously on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Australian eighth seed Ashleigh Barty needed 69 minutes to defeat seed No.14 Madison Keys, 6-3 7-5.
Semifinals at the 2019 French Open are set now. Amanda Anisimova and Ashleigh Barty will face each other for the first time, while Johanna Konta and Marketa Vondrousova will have a rematch of their recent quarterfinal meeting at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Amanda played amazing tennis; so happy for her. If she keeps fit and keeps her winning form, she’ll be winning this year’s French Open title and many more majors. Sorry to learn of Maddie Keys’ loss, but she gave it a good run. I just don’t understand why she can’t win a major, or hasn’t won one at least by now. I’ve always had the idea she needs the right coach to help groom her amazing tennis skills to a higher & greater advantage, particularly to win majors. Now that Maddie’s out, I’m hoping either Barty or Amanda Anisimova will win the title. The way things have gone this year at the FO, I’m anxiously awaiting Wimbledon. In the meantime, can’t wait for Fed and Nadal to go at it. Congrats to all the winners and losers for making it this far!
Halep and Anisimova were both wearing the same Nike kit with the honeybees. At least they wore different color visors so at a distance you could kind of tell them apart. I would like to see an all-teenager final with Anisimova and Markéta Vondroušová….again with both wearing the same Nike kit! But at least you would then have a lefty playing a righty.