Anisimova previously reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2019 as a 17-year-old, but her momentum stalled after the sudden death of her father later that year. Struggles with mental health led her to take a break from tennis in 2023. On Saturday, she broke down in tears while thanking her mom for making the rare trip to watch her play in person.

“My mom is the most selfless person I know, and she’s done everything to get me to this point in my life… Thank you for being here and breaking the superstition of flying in,” Anisimova said in her runner-up speech, before adding with a chuckle, “It’s definitely not why I lost today.”

Q. Your post-match speech was quite memorable and moving. What were your thoughts as you were about to give that speech, and what was it like to do it?

AMANDA ANISIMOVA: Yeah, I mean, I was getting so overwhelmed with emotion. I think I was just trying to hold it together, honestly.

It was such a big moment. I was trying to remind myself, like, this is an incredible moment, to not try and let that go and get overwhelmed by all the feelings I was feeling. So I tried to keep it together and swallow all the tears and just speak from my heart really. There were a lot of things that I wanted to say. I felt like my speech was pretty long.

But yeah, I just wanted to really take advantage of the moment that I had, and try to forget what had just transpired the previous hour and just kind of acknowledge everything that I’ve done the last two weeks and all the people that have helped me get there.