One of the only times I ever bothered to watch a full match of hers after 1998 (as the hype around such a little accomlished player who was increasingly obvious not going to live up to her hype, annoyed me too much to bother) was the 2001 Australian Open quarterfinal vs Davenport. I was surprised how impressed I was with her game that day, but the match also showed why she was such a massive underachiever. The score of 6-4, 6-2 really did not reflect the match that well, as in terms of level of play she was really almost equal to Davenport that day, but lost practically every big point so that was the result.
She is a very good shotmaker. She is excellent at creating winning shots without even much set up for them. She has very hard and clean groundstrokes. Davenport said after she match she felt uncomfortable at times on the baseline with Anna's power, and Davenport is arguably the hardest hitter ever. Her serve which was once a big weakness- lots of double faults, was pretty good this match. Atleast the 1st serve, 2nd serve was a bit weak and Davenport was eating it up at times. She has very nice volleys and touch at the net when she chose to come in off a decent approach. She is a good mover and defends quite well. She also sometimes uses this wonky looking slice which is quite good and was effective when she did use it. Her return of serve is very strong too.
However her shot selection was terrible at times. A drop shot from behind the baseline when Davenport was inside the court hitting the previous shot on a break point chance. She approached at dumb times. She gives herself no margin of error on her shots, hitting flat and hard but with little topspin or safety to where she is aiming her shots, and often missing by quite a bit. Her concentration was poor, and she seemed to get nervous on the big points and play her worst tennis of the match at those moments. She doesn't seem to understand how to construct or build points well, or have a coach to guide her with that. She also lacks that one standout weapon, a go to shot if you will.
One tournament a lot forget (the last tournament I watched her quite a bit) was the 1998 Miami event. She had an excellent event, beating Seles, Martinez, Sanchez Vicario, and Davenport. She was up a set and break on Venus Williams in the final and totally should have won that, especialy since Venus wasn't even playing well that day. However she fell apart after Venus lifted her game and broke her back, and lost in 3 sets. What a difference winning that title would have probably made to her whole career. At the very least to how she is perceived today.
