Anastasija Sevastova knows how hard tennis can be—even as she makes it look easy

NEW YORK—“I’ve seen that there’s life after tennis,” Anastasija Sevastova said early last week at the U.S. Open. “That if you lose a match, it’s not the end of the world. That the world does not collapse.”

But Sevastova, a 26-year-old, oft-injured Latvian who retired in 2013 before un-retiring in 2015, also found that life after tennis can be a little, well, “strange.” That’s the word she used to describe her brief career as a “leisure management” student.

“I didn’t find it that difficult to study,” said Sevastova, who says she enjoyed learning something new. “But maybe it made me go back to tennis.”

One thing many pros discover when they try to adjust to life after tennis: They’re glad they became tennis players in the first place.

Anyone who watched Sevastova upset the No. 13 seed, Johanna Konta, 6-4, 7-5, on Sunday, four days after upsetting the No. 3 seed, Garbiñe Muguruza, knows that playing this sport is what she was born to do. Like Daniel Evans on the men’s side at this year’s Open, the WTA’s No. 48—who had never reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal before Sunday—has come from nowhere to show fans that there’s more variety and possibility in the game today than meets the casual eye.

Like many ultra-smooth talents, Sevastova makes tennis look almost too easy. You might, as you watch her coolly float toward a short ball or carve delicately under a drop shot, wonder if she cares where her shot lands. By the time you’ve finished the thought, the ball is past her opponent for a winner.

At 5’7” and 143 pounds, Sevastova disproves the popular idea that you need to be physically imposing to succeed on tour these days. Her serve isn’t exactly a lollipop, but it’s not a weapon, either. What she wins with, and what makes her so much fun to watch, is timing. Sevastova’s forehand and backhand are simply constructed, no-frills slap shots. They don’t have a lot of built-in spin for safety, but her ball-striking skills are pure enough that she doesn’t need it.

On the forehand side, Sevastova has what commentators like to call “easy power”; she can, in other words, absorb pace and use it to create her own. She disguises the direction of her shots well, hits with equal authority crosscourt, down the line or inside out, and loves the running crosscourt pass. On the backhand side, Sevastova can cut under the ball at the last second and drop it a few inches on the other side of the net. She has flair, too: When she hits a slice approach, she sweeps her racquet up and across her body for a little extra sidespin.

“I felt the ball good,” Sevastova said of her win over Konta. “I was feeling good on the court … Thirty winners, 26 unforced errors. I mean, it’s good quality.”

Konta may have begged to differ. The new roof over Ashe Stadium has brought new shadows with it, and during this late-morning match half the court was in light and the other half in darkness. It seemed to wreak havoc with the players’ strokes, especially Konta’s. She made 34 errors and was broken seven times in 22 games. Sevastova had her own struggles. She was broken five times, and when it came to closing it out, she took the scenic route, blowing a 5-3 lead in the second set before winning 7-5. By then, she had gone from nonchalant to overwrought.

“Mentally, I’m spent,” Sevastova said with a laugh in her press conference on Sunday. “Totally spent. But it’s amazing.”

Like her more famous fellow Latvian, Ernests Gulbis, Sevastova is appealingly blunt. She calls herself a “D-list” celebrity; “I don’t know if we have A-list celebrities,” she said of her tiny country.

She was also perfectly happy that, at the start of the tournament, the U.S. Open’s website had no photo next to her name.

“I’m OK with it,” Sevastova said with a shrug. “I had a WTA picture with short hair. I didn’t like it, actually, so it was OK without [a] picture.”

As for the New York Yankees cap she has worn to her pressers at the Open, she’s not trying to curry favor with the locals or help build her brand in the States.

“I’m not a baseball fan,” said Sevastova, who bought the hat in Europe. “I just like the logo.”

“It’s a roller coaster sometimes,” Sevastova says of the thoughts that pop in and out of her brain during a match.

Even the players who make it look easy on the outside know how tough the sport can be on the inside.

While she’s happy to be back on tour, and happier still to be playing the best tennis of her (first or second) career, Sevastova did learn something valuable away from the court. She says she knows now that there are other things she’ll enjoy doing. Tennis isn’t life and death; it can even be fun. Fun—but never easy.