Come on, come on, come on, Belinda!

Amanda Anisimova is going through this Miami tournament in a state of palpable nervousness. While her talent is immense, her mentality showed worrying signs of crumbling in her second-round match against Ajla Tomljanović. Leading comfortably 6-1, 5-4 with a match point on her opponent’s serve, she completely lost her way after a rain delay. Unable to close it out, she let the set slip away 7-5 before finally scraping through in three tough sets. This inability to stay clear-headed under pressure, in front of her home crowd, is a major crack in her armor this season, especially when you look at her 46 unforced errors in this return match. What will be remembered is a ferocious backhand – and she overuses it!!

Conversely, Belinda Bencic exudes absolute calm and seems to have found a new adjustment on her serve in Miami. Usually quite fragile on her second serves, with an average of 47 percent of points won on them this season, she has clearly worked specifically on this area for Florida. Her stats have become impressive: she won 70 percent of her second-serve points against Sönmez and maintained a solid 63 percent against an aggressive returner like Shnaider in the previous round. This newfound solidity on serve completely changes the equation, as it deprives Anisimova of her favorite angle of attack on the return.

The statistical duel confirms this impression of technical superiority. Bencic shows a match efficiency of 2.527 compared to 1.706 for Anisimova, proving that she is much better at converting her dominance into games. Above all, the Swiss is imperious on pressure points with a success ratio of 1.857 versus 1.469 for Amanda. Historically, they are tied at two wins apiece, but the confidence dynamic is clearly on Belinda’s side. The Miami surface favors the Swiss player’s flat trajectories, which will force Amanda to play one more shot, whereas the American tends to get frustrated and overhit when the rally drags on.