Amanda Anisimova Reflects on Her Tough Loss to Simona Halep at French Open 2020

No.25 seed Amanda Anisimova astonishingly crashed out of the French Open 2020. Anisimova lost brutally to Simona Halep 0-6, 1-6 in the third round in just 54 minutes. Despite dropping just 4 games combined in her first two matches, Anisimova couldn’t reproduce that form against Halep.

Last year, Anisimova had ousted Halep in the quarterfinals of the French Open. Top-seed Halep is aiming to win her third Grand Slam title and extended her winning streak to a career-best 17 matches.

During the post-match press conference, Anisimova reflected on her poor performance and acknowledged that she made too many mistakes.

“Today, of course, I was playing really bad. It’s been one of the worst matches I have played in a while. I was just making mistakes all over the place. It’s a great experience & I’ll definitely learn from it. I wish Simona the best for the rest of the tournament,” said Anisimova.

Amanda Anisimova calls it a bad day

No.1 seed Halep played aggressively and stayed much closer to the baseline, unlike last year when she stood far back to return. Due to a truncated tennis calender, Halep returned invigorated and had won the Italian Open 2020 a week before.

The 19-year-old Anisimova talked about her lopsided defeat and revealed that she was trying to get into the rhythm. However, she committed 32 unforced errors and wasn’t able to execute the right shots.

“I guess it was just one of those days. I was trying to get into a good rhythm, and I thought that I was going to start making my shots soon, because that was my game plan. It was just a bad day for me,” remarked Anisimova.

Anisimova revealed that this year had been mentally tough for her and she would try to look at the positives. The American contended that the crushing loss wasn’t the worst thing in the world and admitted that her overall game was improving.

The 2018 French Open champion will now face Iga Swiatek, who defeated Eugenie Bouchard in the third round in Paris. The duo has played once in the past, and Halep won that encounter convincingly.