Anisimova praises Alysa Liu: 'She's my role model now'

Following her dominant 6-1, 6-1 win over Emma Raducanu in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open, Amanda Anisimova gave a shout out to Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu, who has become an inspiration to her.

"I've been such a big fan of her," the American said in her on-court interview. "She reminded me to not take things too seriously a few weeks ago. Just following her, her journey, and her story has been super special. I feel like she's my role model now. I just love her."

Elaborating more in her post-match press conference, the World No. 6 explained that she greatly admires her countrywoman's ability to balance rigorous training with interests and experiences away from competition.

The four-time WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz champion also praised the two-time gold medalist's independence, and how she seems to stay true to herself and do what's in her heart, unaffected by outside influences and noise.

Anisimova added that she felt like she was putting too much pressure on herself at the beginning of the season, coming off her breakthrough 2025 campaign, and watching Liu helped her shift her perspective. 

"She's definitely more on the extreme end, which I love," Anisimova said. "It looks like she doesn't care about anything, and I absolutely love that. It seems to be very much her personality. I feel like I really needed something like that to kind of remind myself that, 'Yeah, life is short. 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. ... Even though she's much younger than me, she's very much a role model for me."

After losing the first set to Anna Blinkova in her second-round match, Anisimova has dropped just three games in her last four sets. 

She will play 10th-seeded Victoria Mboko in the fourth round on Tuesday.