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American tennis star Amanda Anisimova lamented the “clickbait” line of questioning from a freelancer for The Athletic who asked her “how it feels to play under the American flag” at the Australian Open last week.
Tennis journalist Owen Lewis is freelancing for the New York Times-owned sports outlet in Melbourne during the major, and asked several American players—including Anisimova, Taylor Fritz, and Ethan Quinn—about how it feels to play as an American amid political tension in the country.
On Monday, after defeating Wang Xinyu to advance to the quarter-finals, Anisimova was asked how she is handling the “chatter and discourse” around her in the tournament.
Anisimova began her answer by saying that the internet is “tough” and she’s had to get used to it as part of her job. She continued, “In my other press conference, the fact that I didn’t want to answer a question that was obviously intended for just a headline and clickbait, that was my right, and it had nothing to do with my political views or anything like that. So the fact that people assume that they know my stance on certain important topics is just wrong, and it’s not factual. It’s tough but I’ve learned to get used to it.”
In her original answer to the question last week, Anisimova said, “I was born in America so I’m always proud to represent my country. A lot of us are doing really well. It’s great to see a lot of great athletes on the men’s and women’s sides. I feel like we’re all doing a good job representing ourselves.”
Lewis responded, “To clarify, sort of in the context in the last year of everything that’s been happening in the U.S., does that complicate that feeling at all?”
“I don’t think that’s relevant,” Anisimova answered.
Lewis has not published a story from the Open for The Athletic since Jan. 22—the first day he asked several of the players about playing under the American flag—and he has not posted on the Bluesky social media network, where he primarily shares his stories, since the day before that.
A spokesperson for The Athletic declined to comment as to whether Lewis collaborated with the outlet’s editors to plan the line of questioning. Lewis did not respond to an email seeking comment.
There was backlash to the line of questioning from a number of people last week.
“Popular opinion: Let’s ask tennis questions to the players at a tennis tournament. This is so lame,” wrote John Isner, the retired American tennis player who was previously ranked in the top 10 in the world, wrote on Twitter/X.
“Far left wing sports media member asks American tennis player if she’s ashamed to play under the flag given what’s going on in our country the past year. She handled it well, but sports media keeps being attacked by left wing activists. Shameful,” wrote OutKick founder Clay Travis.
A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Owen Lewis as Canadian. FOS regrets the error.
