Amanda Anisimova has been a revelation over the past few years. The American tennis sensation caught eyeballs when she lifted the US Open girls’ singles trophy in 2017. She defeated her compatriot, Coco Gauff, in the lop-sided summit clash to clinch the title.

Since then, she has gone on to win a couple of WTA titles. She had a major breakthrough at the 2019 French Open, where she made a semifinal appearance before going down to the eventual champion, Ashleigh Barty, in the last-four clash. En route to her semifinal finish in that tournament, she defeated the current World Number 3, Aryna Sabalenka, and the two-time Grand Slam champion, Simona Halep.

Recently, she won the 2022 Eisenhower Cup, which is an exhibition event held before the kick-off of the BNP Paribas Open. Subsequently, the 20-year-old opened up on Eastern European conflict.

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Amanda Anisimova pledges to donate some of the prize money

The 20-year-old American wished to contribute to the Ukrainian relief fund. Elaborating on this, she said, “We are here and enjoying but it’s very hard to just live normally. I’ll definitely be donating some of my prize money to the Ukrainian relief fund.”

The Eisenhower Cup has a unique Tie Break Tens format, which consists of first to ten-point tie-break matches. It is a one-night, USD 150,000 winner-takes-all tournament involving eight players. This year’s event was held on International Women’s Day. Top players in the women’s singles like Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Aryna Sabalenka, etc. competed for the trophy.

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In the eight-player single elimination draw, Anisimova defeated the former World Number 1, Naomi Osaka 10-3 in the opening round. Further, she overcame the defending Indian Wells champion, Paula Badosa, 10-6 in the semifinals. In the summit clash, she defeated Maria Sakkari 10-7, to take home the Eisenhower Cup trophy and USD 150,000.

It might prove to be an important psychological victory for Anisimova with the Sunshine Double coming up this month. However, she has a difficult path in Indian Wells where she will potentially face US Open 2021 runners-up, Leylah Fernandez, in the second round. Anisimova will open her Indian Wells campaign against compatriot Emma Navarro.