PARIS, France - American teenager Amanda Anisimova's French Open is over, but in two weeks, she made the world stand up and take notice.
The 17-year-old nearly scored a stunning victory over Ashleigh Barty in her first Grand Slam semifinal match on Friday, only to let a set and a break lead slip away before falling in three sets.
"It's amazing, even though I'm obviously upset I lost, because I'm always upset if I lose. It's disappointing," Anisimova said after the semifinals.
"At the end of the day, I did make it to the semifinals for the first time. So, it's a positive week for me.
"I'm just going to try and be happy about the couple weeks, and hopefully today I'll be a little bit happier than I am right now."
Arriving in Paris ranked World No.51, the teenager worked her way through the draw for her second straight appearance in the second week of a Grand Slam this year.
En route, she downed No.11 seed Aryna Sabalenka for the second time in a major after doing so in Australia, and she also scored her first victory over a Top 5 player when she blitzed defending champion Simona Halep in the quarterfinals.
Read more: ‘I just played the best tennis of my life’: Anisimova stuns Halep to reach French Open semifinals
She leaves Paris having now made a different sort of arrival: Anisimova will see her her ranking cut by nearly half on Monday, and she will break into the Top 30 for the first time.
"I'm really happy that I finished the last clay tournament like this, because the clay season has been up and down, so it's just amazing to do so well in a clay Grand Slam," she added.
"I'm really excited about the grass season. I gained a lot of confidence in the past couple of weeks."
A winner of her first career WTA title at the Claro Open Colsanitas in Bogotá in April, Anisimova also reached the round of 16 at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome as a lucky loser prior to the French Open.
With the terre battue behind her, the teenager will now turn her attention to the lawns of the grass-court season, where she will likely be seeded in her main draw debut at Wimbledon in just about a month's time.
Anisimova has never played a tour-level match on grass, but told reporters she's ready to take on her next challenge.
"I played junior Wimbledon one time and I lost, like, 13-11 in the third set or something," the teenager recalled.
"Everyone tells me my game suits grass well, but that time I didn't leave thinking that. Hopefully, with a little bit more practice and getting used to it, then maybe I can do well. We'll see how this year goes."
