No more coach, a wrist being rebuilt for the American

Laura Siegemund comes into this second round with the mindset of a player who knows exactly what she’s worth on grass. At 38, the German has built her season around this surface, which has been structurally successful for her over the past year: 5–3 on WTA grass over 52 weeks, a dominance ratio of 1.660 and a breakpoints prevail of 1.696, both higher than Anisimova’s over the same period, and a clear win against Jones yesterday with 100% of service games held, 82% of points won behind her first serve in, and 67% on the opponent’s second serve. She’s the type of player who wears you down, who constructs points, who never gives up her serve and waits for her opponent to crack. Exactly what Anisimova does not need this morning.

Amanda Anisimova arrives at Queen’s Club in a situation where all the warning lights are flashing. A left wrist injury diagnosed after Miami at the end of March, two full months out, a return at Roland-Garros with no clay preparation, going out in the third round against Parry and attributing the loss to physical problems related to the heat, and on top of that a split with Hendrik Vleeshouwers, the Dutch coach who had been the architect of her resurgence since 2024 and her two Grand Slam finals. She shows up with no confirmed coach in the box, with 3.57 double faults per match in 2026 compared to 2.76 aces, numbers that reveal a serve under constant stress, and no match on grass since Wimbledon 2025. The engine is cold, the mindset has no safety net.

The scenario of a long match is the most likely given these two profiles. Siegemund holds serve, puts pressure on Anisimova’s second serve, and an American who warms up slowly on a surface she hasn’t touched for a year, without a coach to reset her between sets, can very easily get dragged into a three-set match where every game turns into a battle.