WTA500 London: Amanda Anisimova vs Tatjana Maria final analysis
Slicing through the field at Queen's for biggest career title
Tatjana Maria (WTA #79) arrived in London without a win in more than two months and on a 9-match losing streak. After coming through qualies and enjoying the best week of her tennis career, she left as the first women’s singles champion crowned at the Queen’s Club since 1973.
At 37 years 10 months and 7 days, Maria also became the oldest winner of a WTA 500 event following an extraordinary run that included 4 wins on the trot over Top-20 players: #13 Karolina Muchova, #11 Elena Rybakina, #8 Madison Keys and #16 Amanda Anisimova.
Prior to this week, Maria’s only other career tournament with multiple Top-20 wins was 2022 Wimbledon, when she beat #5 Maria Sakkari and #14 Jelena Ostapenko on her way to the semis.
So what makes Maria such a tough opponent on grass?
With a unique playing style of slices on virtually every return and groundstroke — against Anisimova in the final, Maria sliced/blocked all her returns and only hit a topspin groundstroke in 3 of 63 (4.8%) forehands and 5 of 92 (5.4%) backhands!!! — Maria’s shots stay extra low and skid through. She makes few unforced errors and offers little pace to work with. During rallies that is, because the German possesses a powerful and accurate serve she uses to extract free points. She also likes to transition from defense to sneaky net attacks in just a couple of shots. It is a rare package players are not used to face, one that poses technical, tactical and mental challenges.
To beat Maria, you have to control errors and frustration, be prepared to hit a few shots from uncomfortable positions and endure some long rallies while staying aggressive, find your way to the net and do well once there.
Anisimova didn’t tick a few of those boxes during the final of the HSBC Championships and that’s why she came away empty-handed despite hitting almost 3-times more winners than Maria (33 to 12).
