From there, the two women traded baseline bombs, and Anisimova’s proved to be superior in pace, depth and placement. She rifled her returns, especially from the backhand side; hit the corners with her ground strokes; and rushed Swiatek on her forehand side. Anisimova was better when it mattered, too. She broke Swiatek at 4-5 to win the first set, and bounced back from an 0-2 start in the second. She had more winners (23 to 13) and fewer errors (12 to 15) than the No. 2 seed.
In the past, Anisimova might have seen her early second-set deficit as evidence that her first-set success was a fluke. This time, at 0-2, she gritted her way to a tough hold from 15-30 down, with strong serving. That seemed to give her her belief back, and she constantly reinforced it with fist-pumps, positive self-talk, and short chats with her coach the rest of the way. Anisimova’s misses seemed to surprise her, rather than confirm her fears.
“Today I’m just really, really proud of myself,” she said. “I feel like I really made a point to myself and also maybe to other people that if you really put a positive mindset out there or, I don’t know, just try and work through things, then, you know, you can have a positive outcome.”
“I feel like I was really supporting myself, which in turn, also helped me play better.”
