Amanda Anisimova began her 2026 Wimbledon campaign with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over qualifier Lina Gjorcheska on Tuesday. That victory came after an unusual decision in the middle of the grass-court season: stepping away from the sport. The American has been here before. In May 2023, she stepped away from tennis for eight months to focus on her mental health. Tournaments had become unbearable, she wrote in her announcement on social media. And Wimbledon this year, she started having similar feelings again.

“The last two months had worn me down a lot. The start of the season was also complicated, and I felt like I was starting to drift away from myself,” she told Punto De Break. “It was a strange situation. I was pushing myself to the limit, training every day, but without knowing if I was ready to play. In the end, I was very tired.”

Ahead of the Berlin Open in June, Anisimova suffered back spasms. But instead of staying in Europe and focusing on rehab to prepare for the grass-court season before Wimbledon, she decided to fly back home to the United States. It was the fatigue, both physical and mental, that led her to make this bold decision.

“I needed to get away from this environment. Here, every day is the same, with the same routines and the same stress. Being at home, with my family and friends, where everything is familiar, helped me a lot,” she further explained. 

The decision, however, did not come without internal conflict. “I felt a little guilty for doing it,” she continued.

“But in the end, I’m human, and it was the best thing for me. Now I’m very happy I made that decision because I feel like myself again and I’m really looking forward to competing.”

Anisimova knows just how important it is to take time off, even if it invites criticism. She was going through a difficult period in 2022, with the fatigue building since the summer, forcing her to keep pushing when she simply couldn’t anymore. So, with tennis at the back of her mind, she stepped away from the tour and effectively retired for eight months before feeling ready to return.

She dropped from world No. 21 to No. 442 during her absence. Then she came back and even reached the Wimbledon final in 2025, where she lost 6-0, 6-0 to Iga Swiatek in 57 minutes.

Anisimova is far from alone. Daria Kasatkina shut down her 2025 season early, writing on social media that she had “hit a wall” and needed a break from “the monotonous daily grind of life on the tour.” Several players, including Frances Tiafoe, Danielle Collins, and Jack Draper, cited mental fatigue when ending their seasons prematurely. In 2026, the PTPA launched a formal lawsuit against tennis’ governing bodies, specifically citing a 45-week schedule it described as unsustainable for player welfare.

Before Berlin, Anisimova’s 2026 grass court performance was already shaky. She lost in the quarterfinals to 18-year-old Iva Jovic at Queen’s Club, which cost her 217 ranking points and caused her to fall to World No. 6. The back spasms that pushed her out of Berlin occurred at a time when she had her wrist problem. The American did not compete in any grass court events before Wimbledon, forgoing Bad Homburg, Eastbourne, and Nottingham. 

Going home was not a substitute for match practice. It was the alternative, a deliberate bet that mental clarity would matter more heading into the tournament than additional reps on grass.

Amanda Anisimova’s comeback at Wimbledon

Amanda Anisimova returned to SW19 as the sixth seed, up seven spots from her unseeded run to the final last year, and beat Gjorcheska in straight sets after 353 days away from Wimbledon’s grass. 

“There is confidence that I know I can play well on the grass, so I think that’s the biggest takeaway,” she said afterwards. 

She had won 83 percent of her first serve points and finished the game in less than an hour with no indication of the turmoil that had taken place behind the scenes. Anisimova’s 2025 run to the final remains one of the best results of her career, a run that ended in a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Iga Swiatek, the heaviest Grand Slam final scoreline since 1988. This year’s trip to the second round will lead her to an all-American showdown against the 2020 Australian Open winner, Sofia Kenin, who is currently outside the top 100. 

The two players have met thrice in their careers, with the veteran American leading the way with two victories. This will be their first meeting on the surface, and Anisimova holds a much superior record on grass than Kenin. 

The pattern across her career is by now well established: Anisimova reaches a limit, steps back, and returns sharper than before. The 2023 hiatus produced the 2025 Wimbledon final.  This latest break was smaller in scale, a few days rather than eight months, but it followed the same instinct.

What Anisimova’s confession reveals is that pushing harder in training isn’t a guaranteed path to recovery. Sometimes it means stepping away and trusting that the version of herself who returns will be sharper than the one who stayed. The one who appeared on No. 2 Court, in her own words, looked like the original herself before all that had taken her down over the past two months.