By Nancy E. Spencer

Nancy Spencer is a professor emerita who taught in the Sport Management program at BGSU for 25 years. Her focus was and continues to be on women’s professional tennis.

July 11, 2025

How unusual is this?

I usually don’t buy the Wall St. Journal but this one caught my attention because of the photo featured front and center!

The caption read: “An All-American Upset Rocks the All England Club“

So I put down $5.00 to buy it, in anticipation of reading an accompanying article that might explain why Amanda Anisimova appeared on the cover!

Only, there was no article attached, unless I had a subscription, so I paid for a 1-year subscription (at a reduced rate). There was another article about Billie Jean King’s transformation of women’s tennis (Bobrow, 2021), so I reasoned it would be worth the investment. After all, isn’t the Wall St. Journal about investments?

I wanted to discover what made Amanda Anisimova’s story compelling enough to feature on the front page of the WSJ. If you follow tennis, and/or watched the semifinal match that she played against Sabalenka (the No. 1 player in the world), you know that two years ago Anisimova took a break from tennis due to burnout. Joshua Robinson (2025) called her “a textbook case of the American tennis phenom who burned out” (para. 1).

Similar to other young phenoms, Anisimova rose quickly to the pinnacle of junior tennis, winning the Girl’s U.S. Open at age 16 (defeating another up-and-comer named Coco Gauff), and she reached a grand slam semifinal before turning 18. That would have been enough pressure, but then her father passed away and that “only deepened her doubts about life in pro tennis” (Robinson, 2025, para. 2).

Two years is a long time to be away from any professional sport and Anisimova had her detractors who warned that she could never come back at a high level if she stayed away too long. But she listened to what her body and mind were telling her and she is now in the midst of a dramatic return. It hasn’t all been positive. A year ago, she ranked outside the top 400 and had to play in the qualifiers at Wimbledon. She did not even make it to the main draw. But since then, she has made improvements to her game as the results are now showing.

Anisimova’s story is not just about her triumphant moment, but about the growing presence of U.S. women among the top-ranking professional women tennis players. American women occupy 4 of the top 10 rankings, including: Coco Gauff (#2), Jessica Pegula (#3), Madison Keys (#8), and Emma Navarro (#10). Anisimova is currently ranked #12 but could climb to as high as #5 if she beats Iga Swiatek in the final.

In tomorrow’s final, Anisimova will face a player she has never played, Iga Swiatek, winner of 5 grand slam titles. Her most recent title came in 2024 when she won her fourth French Open title; this will be her first Wimbledon final. Swiatek has several things in her favor – experience (she spent 122 weeks at No. 1), and she has won all five finals that she reached. If she wins tomorrow, it will be her 100th match victory at a grand slam tournament. So far at Wimbledon, she “has won 78% of her first-serve points,” which should give her confidence going into the final (Garber, 2025, para. 16).

On the other hand, Anisimova has momentum after beating the current No. 1 player in the world. Her break from tennis has given her a renewed optimism and appreciation of playing tennis at such a high level. And there is this – she has 28 straight match victories when she won the first set (Garber, 2025).

Whatever happens in tomorrow’s final, there will be a newly-crowned champion. Based on experience, I have to give it to Swiatek, but given Anisimova’s momentum, I cannot rule her out. That is a match I do not want to miss! Hopefully, you get to see it too!