John Isner makes bold prediction about what could happen to Amanda Anisimova next year

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Amanda Anisimova continues to impress at the very biggest tournaments on the WTA Tour.

Anisimova won the China Open for the first time after beating Linda Noskova, backing up her runs to the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open.

This run included an emphatic semifinal victory, where Anisimova thrashed Coco Gauff and lost just three games.

Anisimova is closing the gap on Gauff as American number one, and now John Isner has made a big prediction about his compatriot.

John Isner backs Amanda Anisimova to become world number one next year

Anisimova is still world number four in the WTA rankings, but her position in the race suggests that she could be on track to finish the year as world number three.

However, former top 10 player Isner thinks that Anisimova can do even better than that, and when speaking to Steve Johnson he has claimed that he sometimes thinks she is ‘the best player in the world’.

“Amanda has been unreal,” Johnson said on the Nothing Major podcast. “She is three in the race. What a year. Everything she has been through in her life in the last couple of years, taking time away and getting back and then what happened in the Wimbledon final.

“To see what she has been doing relatively quietly, I feel like, on the WTA side. It is truly remarkable and what she did in Beijing was the feather in the cap on what has so far been a great year.”

Isner responded, “Sometimes I watch her play and think she is the best player in the world. I know she is the third best. But there is a lot of times when I’m watching her in the last few months where the eye test tells me that she is number one. There is a good chance that she gets there in the next 12 months if she keeps playing how she is playing.”

How many American women have been world number one?

There have been eight American women who have topped the WTA singles rankings, with Serena Williams the most recent in May 2017.

Although Williams spent 319 weeks as world number one, Martina Navratilova holds the American record after topping the rankings for 332 weeks.

Some of the other American ranking toppers include Chris Evert, Monica Seles and Venus Williams, with the latter only spending 11 weeks as world number one despite being a seven-time major winner.

Gauff is often predicted to be world number one next for American tennis, but Isner has suggested that it will actually be Anisimova.

After winning title in Beijing, Anisimova has withdrawn from the Wuhan Open, which gives Gauff an opportunity to try and keep her place as world number three this year.