Anisimova starts slow, but finishes strong in first match in two months

For the first five games of her first-round match against France's Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah at Roland Garros on Monday, Amanda Anisimova looked the part of a player who hadn't set foot on the match court in eight weeks. She dropped serve twice, struggled for rally consistency, and lacked rhythm on serve.

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But in the next 11, the two-time Grand Slam finalist looked every bit a title contender. After a slow start in her first match following a left wrist injury, Anisimova sprinted to a 6-3, 6-1 victory in just 1 hour and 9 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen -- her 15th career match win in Paris, and one that will no doubt make the American feel good after she missed the entire clay-court season to date.

Anisimova told reporters after the match that the injury that kept her sidelined was "nothing too serious," and that she took her progression "week by week" as she assessed when to return to action. 

"Whenever I felt like I got enough matches, practice matches, with girls and got enough trainings in where it's, OK, I'm ready to play a Grand Slam, I'm ready to play a full tournament" drove her decision-making on when to return to the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz.

"I did all the prep work to be here and hopefully last the full two weeks," she said, after missing the Mutua Madrid Open and dubbing a return for the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome as "too soon." 

"I tried to not really overthink anything," she added. "I was super excited to be here, to be fit to play, honestly, and that was the only thing I really thought about is what a great opportunity. ... I'm just super relieved that all is good and that I'm ready to play."

In many ways, Rakotomanga Rajaonah was an ideal opponent for a player searching for form. After breaking through to win her first tour-level singles title last September in Sao Paulo, the 20-year-old has struggled thus far in her sophomore season, and entered Roland Garros with just a 1-11 win-loss record this year. She was also playing just her third-ever Grand Slam match, having debuted at her home major a year ago before losing to Arnya Sabalenka in the first round of the Australian Open in January.

But her left-handed swing patterns and tenacity left Anisimova, whose first major breakthrough came when she reached the semifinals in Paris at a teenager in 2019, frustrated early. She saved four break points in her opening service game, and then twice was up a break -- taking advantage of a double fault served up by Anisimova in 1-1 and 2-2 service games. But her own serve couldn't stand up once Anisimova shored up her returns -- and the American won nearly 70% of the points played on Rakotomanga Rajaonah's serve throughout the match.

Anisimova finished the match with an even 24 winners and 24 unforced errors -- but 14 of those errors came in the opening set.

Anisimova will next face Julia Grabher of Austria, who defeated qualifier Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia in straight sets to score her first Grand Slam match win in two years following a serious wrist injury. Grabher, on the cusp of returning the Top 100 in the PIF WTA Rankings, owns 15 career clay-court titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour.