Amanda Anisimova broke in tears after painful defeat in Toronto final

In the end it was anger, disappointment and frustration, but Amanda Anisimova must still be proud of her path at the Canadian Open, WTA 1000 on Toronto hard-courts.

Anisimova was defeated by her countrywoman Jessica Pegula (at her 2nd title of the season and 3rd WTA 1000 in her career) in three sets and, at the end of the challenge, Amanda let herself go to a cry of disappointment, shedding bitter tears. Out of frustration, the American tennis player also smashed a racket, as you can see in the images below. But, as I said, she must still be proud of the tournament performed.

After an eight-month hiatus to find her balance in a world that too often tends to crush you under the weight of pressure and make you fragile, Anisimova is finally back competing, to the delight of her fans. After losing to Arantxa Rus in Madrid in 2023, Amanda decided to stop for the sake of her mental health.

She returned to college in person and to lead a life that she called normal. She never really thought about leaving tennis at 21: too many sacrifices had been made to let her dreams go like that. She built her shape and her armor day after day at the WTA 1000 in Toronto.

“I’m super happy. This is a big achievement for me, something I’ve worked hard for. I’m really happy and quite surprised about my week in Toronto. I’m still hungry and I hope I can do well in the final too. Dreaming of a Slam and number one? It would be hard to end my career without achieving my goals, so I want to give my best to achieve that. I hope that if I do my best, one day all this will happen. I can only work every day and do my best,” Anisimova said in a press conference before focusing on her time off.

“When I decided to stop, I knew I didn’t want to end my career that way. I wanted to accomplish a lot more and not stop so soon. I made a lot of sacrifices and I knew I would come back. Taking a break gave me time to…