"I knew that when I stepped away, I really wanted to come back" - Amanda Anisimova on her 'smooth' return to tour after mental health break in 2023

Amanda Anisimova opened up about her return to the tour after taking a mental health break in 2023. In May of last year, the American announced that she would be taking an indefinite hiatus from tennis due to burnout and concerns for her mental well-being.

Anisimova is currently competing at the 2024 Canadian Open. She had used her protected ranking to secure a spot in the main draw of the WTA 1000 hard court tournament in Toronto.

The 22-year-old defeated the likes Caroline Dolehide, fifth seed Daria Kasatkina, 10th seed Anna Kaliskaya, second seed Aryna Sabalenka, and eighth seed Emma Navarro to secure her place in her first WTA 1000 final. In the championship match, she will face third seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula .

During the post-match press conference following her victory over Navarro, Amanda Anisimova talked about the mental health break she took last year after she lost her first round match at the 2023 Madrid Open to Arantxa Rus, and how it was returning to the court this year, at the 2024 ASB Classic.

Anisimova revealed that after announcing her break from tennis she had always known that she would make a comeback to the tennis court, as she has many goals which she wants to achieve in her career.

"I knew that when I stepped away that I really wanted to come back and I didn't want to finish my career on that note, there was still a lot that I wanted to achieve, and just not finish at such a young age, because I had sacrificed so much and given so much to the sport. So, yeah, I knew that I still had many years that I wanted to play," Amanda Anisimova said.

The former World No.21 stated that after taking the break from tennis she had thought about how she would stay healthy and make a comeback. However, she noted that everything has been going "smoothly" since she resumed her tennis career.

"There were some thoughts about how I would stay healthy after taking quite some time away from the game. It's not easy coming back after taking, like, three months completely off, or four months, that was kind of in the back of my head, but once I started practicing and training, everything was going pretty smoothly, so I was happy with that. Honestly, my progress has been going well since last year, so I'm happy with how things have been going," she added.

Amanda Anisimova on reaching Canadian Open final: "I'm super happy, this is a huge accomplishment for me"

Amanda Anisimova [Image Source: Getty Images]

In the aforementioned press conference, Amanda Anisimova, who has two WTA titles to her name, stated that she was "super happy" to be in the final of the 2024 Canadian Open.

The 22-year old expressed that having good results on the tour to her name is something she has worked on and something which she deemed as a "huge accomplishment."

"I'm super happy. This is a huge accomplishment for me, and something I've been working really hard towards, I'm just super happy, honestly, with my week here, and, yeah, I'm pretty surprised with how well I've been able to do so far. I'm still hungry for more, and I hope that I can really do well tomorrow,"Amanda Anisimova said .

Anisimova will face defending champion Jessica Pegula in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. She had faced the World No.6 twice on the WTA Tour, with the latter triumphing on both occasions.