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feather_ghyllAnisimova had been practicing against someone who sliced at her, but would she be able to handle Maria’s disruptive play? Would Maria be able to keep her level up? Apparently she plays this way all through the year, but the slice is so much more effective on grass. They’d played years ago, and Maria had won, but that didn’t tell us much. One factoid that stuck was that Maria had started playing tennis professionally shortly before Anisimova was born.
Both women won their first service game. Anisimova was trying to find a controlled aggression, Maria was still serving fabulously, and it continued much as Maria’s last two matches, against big ball strikers, had. Anisimova got increasingly flummoxed, hitting errors and was broken to love in one of her service games, meaning the first set was Maria’s.
In the second, Anisimova was down a double break at 4-1, although she’d had some break points, but she did let rip and get one game back – you could generally tell who was dictating the point - but all she could manage was to make Maria serve it out, and one wobbly point aside, Maria kept at it, and won the biggest tournament of her life, (and is possibly the oldest woman to win a tournament, or it may just be on grass.) Her movement was great, there were a couple of inspired points, her slices and ability to bring Anisimova backward and forward were too much, and she had more aces than big server Anisimova.
All the players who lost to her in this tournament will want to avoid her at Wimbledon (maybe Muchova, coming back from injury again, might not feel as strongly, because she won a set.) In fact, nearly everyone will – I don’t know if movers like Gauff will do better, or Vondrousova or Jabeur, who have their own trickery, but who haven’t really been playing well. But then, neither was Maria before this tournament. Anisimova shouldn’t be too disheartened, there were positive signs of improvement in this second act of her career, she only lost to an outlier of a player.
I watched a set and a half of the doubles final, sort of, but really didn’t care about the outcome. I think the return of a women’s tournament here will go down as a hit – there were big crowds for a 500 tournament. I think British crowds are one of the more positive for women’s tennis. The fact that it’s straight after the French will mean you’re unlikely to see whoever played spectacularly in that come to this, although in Keys there was a quarter-finalist this year. There's wear on the court, but the men should slip less this week.
Both women won their first service game. Anisimova was trying to find a controlled aggression, Maria was still serving fabulously, and it continued much as Maria’s last two matches, against big ball strikers, had. Anisimova got increasingly flummoxed, hitting errors and was broken to love in one of her service games, meaning the first set was Maria’s.
In the second, Anisimova was down a double break at 4-1, although she’d had some break points, but she did let rip and get one game back – you could generally tell who was dictating the point - but all she could manage was to make Maria serve it out, and one wobbly point aside, Maria kept at it, and won the biggest tournament of her life, (and is possibly the oldest woman to win a tournament, or it may just be on grass.) Her movement was great, there were a couple of inspired points, her slices and ability to bring Anisimova backward and forward were too much, and she had more aces than big server Anisimova.
All the players who lost to her in this tournament will want to avoid her at Wimbledon (maybe Muchova, coming back from injury again, might not feel as strongly, because she won a set.) In fact, nearly everyone will – I don’t know if movers like Gauff will do better, or Vondrousova or Jabeur, who have their own trickery, but who haven’t really been playing well. But then, neither was Maria before this tournament. Anisimova shouldn’t be too disheartened, there were positive signs of improvement in this second act of her career, she only lost to an outlier of a player.
I watched a set and a half of the doubles final, sort of, but really didn’t care about the outcome. I think the return of a women’s tournament here will go down as a hit – there were big crowds for a 500 tournament. I think British crowds are one of the more positive for women’s tennis. The fact that it’s straight after the French will mean you’re unlikely to see whoever played spectacularly in that come to this, although in Keys there was a quarter-finalist this year. There's wear on the court, but the men should slip less this week.
