Anisimova endures a hot Wimbledon nightmare after entering the Swiatek bakery | Jonathan Liew
This is what a scream with no vowels sounds like,This is the weight of the soul leaving the body,The arms are no longer connected to the legs, the legs have been severed from the lungs, the lungs have lost contact with the heart and the heart is getting ghosted by the brain,Amanda Anisimova sits on her chair, baking in the heat, stewing in sadness,She dabs her face with a towel and hopes people won’t notice she’s wiping away tears.
A faint voice from the outer edge of the universe calls time.She still has to go out there.She takes a deep breath.Lifts herself from her seat and takes the 18 long steps to her mark just behind the baseline.Ever found it a struggle getting up to go to work? Try summoning the strength to face Iga Swiatek when you’re losing 6-0, 5-0 in a Wimbledon final.
This was supposed to be the feelgood final.Two players who had already run through nettles and weeds to get to this point, who had already surpassed expectations, who in a way had already triumphed.Choose your own adventure: a heartwarming comeback tale for the ages, or the ultimate vindication of this generation’s greatest talent.Everyone’s a winner.How do you spin this irresistible yarn into something this bleak?“We’ll give you a moment,” Annabel Croft says a few minutes later as the tears flow again and the inevitable applause follows.
The groans and sighs of earlier have melted into sympathy and kindness.Centre Court tickets for women’s singles final day range from £240 to £315, and at that price value for money becomes a factor.But what this final lacked in actual tennis content it made up for as a historical artefact.The most one-sided grand slam final since the end of the cold war and an extra hour in the pub? Not a bad deal at all.And of course there were numbers that could help you make sense of it all: the fact Swiatek won the first set 6-0 despite hitting two winners, the fact 35% of all the points in this match ended in an unforced error by Anisimova, the fact only 78% of Anisimova’s second serves went in.
But really this game was most faithfully experienced as a kind of hot waking nightmare, a window into elite sport at its most brutal and exacting, a meltdown nobody truly saw coming,Did it matter that Anisimova looked nervous right from the start of her warm-up, when she kept flying the ball long and couldn’t even seem to throw Swiatek a proper lob? Or that, as she would later reveal, she felt so leaden in her morning practice that she had to take a break after every single rally? Perhaps,Perhaps not,But either way these little brainworms take on a life of their own very quickly, and there are few players like Swiatek better equipped at finding your pressure point and squeezing it, sadistically and unapologetically,Within two points Anisimova was getting pity cheers.
By the end of the fourth game her ball toss was going awry and she was picking listlessly at the strings on her racket.And for all the critics of the best-of-three format there is a real clarifying brutality to it too, the terrifying knowledge you can spend a lifetime working for this opportunity and about 25 minutes screwing it up.There is no real tactical expertise to bring to bear here.No technical analysis can ever satisfactorily explain how a player who was flaying apart the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka two days ago now finds herself trapped in the Iga bakery, getting pinned down and force-fed.These are creatures of habit and routine, professional athletes who strive so hard to block out the external noise than when it finally comes crashing through the windows, it comes as a total shock to the system.
The key to consistent success at tour level is treating every game the same.The key to mastering the big moments is tacitly accepting that no, they’re not.Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionAs Swiatek climbs the steps to celebrate with her team, the score is still showing on the scoreboard, the clock frozen at 57 minutes.And of course at a time like this all kinds of thoughts must intrude.What just happened? What happens now? How do you begin the day full of dreams and promise and end it as the woman who lost a Slam final 6-0, 6-0?But of course Anisimova has endured worse things than getting double-bagelled in a Wimbledon final.
She’s suffered the sudden loss of her father as a teenager, despair and depression, a crisis of purpose and meaning that forced her to leave the sport for eight months.And if she came back from that, she can come back from this.No walk in tennis will ever be harder than the walk she made to the baseline at 6-0, 5-0 down in a Wimbledon final.No speech she ever makes will be harder than the one she made to the Centre Court crowd here.The heart breaks.
But it does not break for ever.
Born a star: the juicy history of the passion fruit martini
To many people, the expert combination of vanilla vodka, passion fruit puree, Passoã and champagne serves as a syrupy promise of a good night ahead. To me, however, even a whiff of a pornstar martini takes me right back to my waitressing days in the Midlands, and to sticky hands and broken glass after I dropped a tray of four of the damned things. I don’t need a drinks marketing report to tell me it was the most popular cocktail in 2018; I lived it.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for roast summer vegetable, herb and pearl barley salad | A kitchen in Rome
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Australian supermarket chicken nuggets taste test: from ‘mushy’ to ‘super good’
Sarah Ayoub wrangles 10 kids under 10, plus older siblings and their parents, to find chicken nuggets with the best crispiness, even texture and taste of real chickenGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayWhat makes a good chicken nugget? Ahead of this taste test, I put a call-out on Instagram asking this question. Dozens of messages essentially said the same thing: real chicken flavour, evenly textured meat and a crisp exterior.Though a handful suggested I make my own, most understood the assignment: the appeal of a chicken nugget lies not in Nara Smith-ing it but in its convenience, especially during school holiday chaos. To that end, on the first day of winter break, I rounded up good friends, compliant siblings (including a 34-year-old nugget connoisseur-sister who still orders kids’ meals) and their respective children to rate frozen supermarket offerings for their overall appeal, texture and flavour.Nuggets were cooked in an oven according to their packet instructions, but the consensus was that almost all the nuggets needed longer cook times
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Broad bean pods are one of the most under-appreciated edible scraps, and I can’t believe I haven’t written about them here since way back in 2018, when I deep-fried them in spices. They’re wonderfully fragrant, and yield the essence of the broad bean’s familiar flavour without having to use the bean itself.This vibrant green soup is a quick, thrifty and deeply nourishing way to use an otherwise unwanted and unused ingredient. The pods offer a surprising depth of flavour, meaning you can reserve the beans themselves for another meal. You can also use finely minced broad bean pods in stews, risottos and sauces, both for a hidden boost of fibre and for that beloved and familiar green flavour
Yasmin Khan’s recipes for aubergine kuku and fruit and nut granola bars
I am obsessed with these sweet treats: soft, sticky, packed with dried fruit, nuts and seeds, and sweetened with banana and honey, these irresistible granola bars are perfect for when you’re craving something sweet but still want something relatively healthy; they also work well as a light breakfast with a mug of hot tea or coffee. Kuku, meanwhile, is one of the bedrocks of Iranian cuisine, and is the Persian word for these dense, filled frittatas that are often served as a sandwich filling with sliced tomato and crunchy, salty pickles.These keep in an airtight container for about three days, and tend to go softer and chewier after 24 hours, so they are great for making ahead. I use a 16cm-square baking tin.Prep 5 min Cook 45 min Makes 6-8 bars175g jumbo rolled oats 125g dried apricots, roughly chopped50g pistachios1 tbsp pumpkin seeds 1 tbsp sunflower seeds 1 tbsp sesame seeds 1 tbsp milled flax seeds 1 tsp ground cinnamon Salt 75g coconut oil, or butter65g soft dark brown sugar60g tahini3 tbsp honey, or maple syrup 1 ripe banana, peeled and mashed1 tsp vanilla extractHeat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4, and line a small baking tin with greaseproof paper
RecipeTin Eats cook upset her beef wellington recipe ‘entangled’ in Erin Patterson murder case
Nagi Maehashi, the cook behind RecipeTin Eats, says it is “upsetting” to have become “entangled in a tragic situation” after Erin Patterson told her triple murder trial she used the beef wellington recipe for the fateful lunch.In a post to Instagram on Tuesday, Maehashi requested that journalists of Australia “please stop calling and emailing and texting and DM’ing me about the Erin Patterson case”.“It is of course upsetting to learn that one of my recipes – possibly the one I’ve spent more hours perfecting than any other – something I created to bring joy and happiness, is entangled in a tragic situation,” she wrote on Instagram yesterday.“Other than that, I have nothing to say and I won’t be talking to anyone.“Thank you for respecting my privacy
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