Amanda Anisimova has been inspired by Alysa Liu and Lindsey Vonn at the Winter Olympics.
Anisimova is the sixth best women’s tennis player right now, and reached the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
The American has continued this form into 2026, which Anisimova showcased in an emphatic 52-minute win over Emma Raducanu at Indian Wells.
After the match, Anisimova gave a shoutout to two-time Winter Olympic gold medallist Liu, who she has admitted had a real impact on her in Milan last month.
Amanda Anisimova gives shoutout to Alysa Liu at Indian Wells
Anisimova has been a huge prospect from a young age, as a former junior US Open champion and she continued this into seniors by reaching the French Open semifinals at just 17 years old.
However, after struggling with her mental health, Anisimova took an eight-month break from tennis from May 2023.
This bears some similarity to Liu, who retired from figure skating at just 16 years old after the Beijing Winter Olympics due to burnout and the pressure of elite competition, before returning to the sport two years later.
After Anisimova beat Raducanu 6-1, 6-1, at Indian Wells on International Women’s Day, she was asked to speak about some of the special women in her life.
She started by naming those close to her, before giving a special shoutout to Liu, who she called her ‘role model’.
“Well I can’t just give one! There’s so many incredible women in my life in the world,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “I feel like we are all bad a****, so we deserve a day for ourselves. But I have to shoutout obviously my mum and my sister, my biggest support system.
“…My mum left today unfortunately, but my best friend Lexi was here so shoutout to her and my physio Shadi, who keeps me healthy, she’s been a great addition to my team, and all my friends in my life.
“On the topic of your second question, I can give a shoutout to Alysa Liu. I’ve been such a big fan of her. She reminded me to not take things too seriously a few weeks ago. Just following her journey and her story has been super special and I feel like she’s my role model now, like I just love her, yeah so shoutout to her!”
Anisimova was asked about her comments on Liu in her post-match press conference, admitting that she was putting too much pressure on herself at the start of the 2026 season and the Winter Olympian helped remind her to not be too hard on herself.
“I mean, I’m sure she [Liu] doesn’t choose her friends over training,” Anisimova responded. “I think she just, like, has a good balance of, you know, she doesn’t only train, train, train, and have to miss out on everything because I can agree with her on that. But you still have to balance the two or else you won’t perform at that level.
“But yeah, it was like refreshing, because I feel I might have shifted a little bit away from that in the beginning of the year. I feel like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and trying to be like overperfectionist in what I’m doing and really try and improve. That kind of took away from everything that made my year last year what it was.
“Following her story and her journey, like, from before she even performed in the Olympics, I saw all the videos about her. I saw her when nobody really knew about her, and yeah, she blew up.
“Even before then, I thought it was very inspiring, and I like the fact that she’s still so young and she chose to be very independent and, you know, make decisions for herself. She’s not going to do things the way others will tell her to do, and that was kind of my way of going into my career when I was coming back.
“Yeah, I saw a lot of similarities. She’s definitely more on the extreme end, which I love. It looks like she doesn’t care about anything, and I absolutely love that, and it seems to be very much her personality.
“Yeah, I feel like I really needed something like that to kind of remind myself that, yeah, like life is short and try and enjoy what you’re doing, don’t take things too seriously. And with that, at least personally, results will come for me when I have that mindset.
“I’m not someone who does well when I’m an overperfectionist and I put a lot of stress on myself. It just doesn’t work. Yeah, I really needed that. Even though she’s much younger than me, she’s very much a role model for me.”
Amanda Anisimova admits Lindsey Vonn gave her a ‘big wakeup call’ at the Winter Olympics
Anisimova was not only inspired by Liu at the Winter Olympics, but also Lindsey Vonn, who tried to compete at the Games even with an ACL injury.
Although it resulted in Vonn suffering further injury and having to undergo surgery, Anisimova revealed that her compatriot made her realise that her issues at the time were minor in comparison.
“Yeah, I mean, she also that week, it was a very unfortunate week for her, and we were all rooting for her,” said Anisimova. “She also kind of inspired me that week because I think I was struggling with a very minor thing or I was sick or something, and then I saw her performing with a torn ACL, was it, and I was, like, okay, if she can do that, I think you can try and push a little harder here.
“That was like a big wakeup call for me as well as like pushing through it. Yeah, I feel like she’s always stood for doing the impossible and always breaking that boundary and that barrier. I really love her and I look up to her a lot.
“Don’t know if I’ll ever fully live up to that potential of pushing myself. That’s the goal. I hope to aspire to that, but yeah, she’s an incredible role model for me and many other athletes, I’m sure. Yeah, that was tough to watch, but I just hope she’s doing better and healing up.”
Anisimova will hope that she can continue to be inspired by the likes of Liu and Vonn in her next match at Indian Wells against 10th seed Victoria Mboko.