Andy Roddick pinpoints important lesson Frances Tiafoe can learn from Amanda Anisimova ahead of 2026 season

Andy Roddick recently highlighted how Amanda Anisimova’s career trajectory could help Frances Tiafoe. The former US Open champion drew comparisons between the two tennis stars and encouraged Tiafoe to take a page out of Anisimova's book.

Anisimova is undoubtedly one of America's biggest WTA stars at the moment. The 24-year-old's 2025 season saw her with two WTA 1000 titles. She was also a finalist at the Wimbledon Championships and the US Open. On the other hand, Tiafoe struggled to make deep runs in tournaments over the course of the last year. The ATP World No.30’s best performance was a quarterfinals appearance at the French Open.

Recently, during an episode of his Served podcast, Andy Roddick pinpointed an important lesson Frances Tiafoe could learn from Amanda Anisimova ahead of the 2026 saying,

“Well, I actually think, weirdly, that Amanda is a great test case for Francis. We know the upside of Francis's tail end of grand slams. He's done it, three times or whatever it is. But Amanda is playing semi-finals every week now, right? She (was at the) World Tour finals. Like Francis hasn't found that cadence yet, where it's all of a sudden I'm producing this level all year. And Francis is amazing, but like the consistency, it needs to be less of a hot heart rate monitor and maybe just a little more productively boring.”

Roddick went on to draw comparisons between Frances Tiafoe and Anisimova's career trajectory, adding,

“I think Anisimova is a great, you know, someone to point to and say, "Hey, listen, the upside was there. She had been in the semis of a grand slam before. Obviously had gone up and down. You know, Francis didn't play the last two months. There was some mental wear and tear and needed a reset. She's taken a reset before. You look at her and go, "Hey, listen. Couple Grand Slam finals and there every week.”

Amanda Anisimova ended her 2025 season at the WTA Finals, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in her semifinals encounter. Meanwhile, Frances Tiafoe wrapped up his season in September after a second round exit at the Shanghai Masters.

Frances Tiafoe teams up with Amanda Anisimova against Carlos Alcaraz and Jessica Pegula at exhibition event

Tiafoe and Anisimova at the A Racquet At The Rock exhibition (Image Source: Getty)

Frances Tiafoe, Amanda Anisimova, Jessica Pegula and Carlos Alcaraz were all recently in action at the Prudential Centre in Newark for the ‘A Racquet At The Rock’ exhibition event. While there, Tiafoe and Anisimova teamed up for the mixed doubles event, falling short against Alcaraz and Pegula 10-8 in an enthralling battle.

The quartet of tennis stars in New Jersey also competed in singles matches. Pegula and Anisimova faced off against each other, with the former clinching a hard fought victory over the course of three sets. On the men's singles side of things, Tiafoe beat World No.1 Alcaraz 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in a thrilling showdown.