Tennis players lying about their profession isn’t anything new, and it turns out Amanda Anisimova is one of them. Though she’s now a well-established player, she doesn’t seem comfortable talking to strangers about her job. Anisimova was recently asked what she tells people about her profession, and her answer was a little surprising.

“I actually lie in an Uber, especially,” she told a fan during an interaction. “I normally say I just do finance, and then if they ask me more questions, that’s where it gets bad.”

It’s not hard to understand why. If random people found out she’s a prominent tennis player, she’d draw the kind of attention she’d rather avoid, and like plenty of other players on tour, Anisimova values keeping a low profile when she can.

Unfortunately for her, she’s been in the headlines for most of the season, and not for the reasons she’d want. Anisimova entered 2026 as high as world No. 3 in January, but her form has since fallen off sharply. Her best result of the year came all the way back at the Dubai Championships in February, where she reached the semifinals.

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Since then, she’s struggled to string together consecutive wins or put together anything resembling a deep run. Things got worse after the Miami Open, when a lingering wrist injury limited her to just one tournament through the entire clay swing. That injury forced her out of the Italian Open at the last minute, scrapping a scheduled first-round meeting with Jelena Ostapenko.

The French Open didn’t offer much relief either. She fell 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 to Diane Parry in the third round. Her fortunes didn’t turn on grass, either, with a second-round exit at the HSBC Championships followed by a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 loss to Madison Keys in the third round at Wimbledon.

That Wimbledon loss hit hardest. Anisimova broke down in tears mid-interview afterward, admitting she wasn’t enjoying her tennis and needed real time away to sort things out.

“For me, it wasn’t enjoyable to play out there today with my tennis being like that,” she said during her post-match press conference in July. “It was really, really tough. And when I’m happy, and I’m enjoying it, it’s when I’m able to play my tennis. But when I’m not able to make one forehand in the court, it’s really, really hard. I need to go home and take some time and figure out how I can fix this.”

She followed through on that. Anisimova skipped the Citi Open entirely and didn’t play again for a month. Her comeback arrived at the Canadian Open, though the results still didn’t go her way, a mixed return that set up her next real test back on court.

Amanda Anisimova suffers a third-round defeat in Toronto

Anisimova caught a break in the first round, receiving a walkover from Lanlana Tararudee that left her fresh heading into round two. She got a far sterner test there against Nikola Bartunkova.

 The 24-year-old looked headed for another early exit as the Czech took the first set comfortably. But Anisimova flipped the match, bageling Bartunkova in the second set to swing all the momentum into the decider. She held her composure to close out a hard-fought win after just over two hours on court.

That level didn’t carry over into the third round against Elina Svitolina. The Ukrainian was too sharp, closing out a 6-2, 6-4 win in an hour and 17 minutes. Anisimova did manage two breaks of her own serve, but lost her own serve five times, too many to overcome. Svitolina now moves on to a quarterfinal meeting with Ekaterina Alexandrova.

For Anisimova, the disappointing results continue to pile up. She’ll look to turn things around in front of a home crowd at the Cincinnati Masters, which begins August 13, her next chance to prove Toronto was a blip and not a continuation of the season she’s been trying to leave behind.