Amanda Anisimova produced the greatest performance of her life on Thursday, overcoming top seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a high-pressure semifinal encounter to make her way into her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon 2025.
The 23-year-old from the United States, ranked No. 13, showed maturity and endurance during a hard-fought two-hour and 36-minute struggle, winning her sixth career match against a player ranked No. 5 or higher—and her first-ever triumph against a current World No. 1.
The victory represents a milestone moment for American tennis, as Anisimova is the first US woman to reach the Wimbledon final since Serena Williams in 2019.
Thursday's victory also cemented Anisimova's superiority in her individual battle with Sabalenka, taking her head-to-head tally to 6-3. She is now poised to make history as the first player from the 2000s generation to reach the women's singles final at SW19. Fellow 21st-century sensation Iga Świątek has the chance to join her later in the day if she beats Belinda Bencic in the second semifinal.
Anisimova's journey to this point has been far from normal. Once touted as a teen sensation following her charge to the 2019 French Open semifinals at age 17, she took a seven-month break from the sport in 2023 to concentrate on her mental well-being. Last year, she was below the Top 180 and didn't get past Wimbledon qualifying, losing in the preliminaries to Eva Lys.
Her comeback since then has been phenomenal. Her runner-up result at the WTA 1000 event in Toronto last summer propelled her back into the Top 20, followed by her first WTA 1000 title in Doha earlier this year. And now, with her Wimbledon debut, Anisimova is assured of a career-high Top 10 first-week ranking in next week's WTA rankings.
The semifinal is her much-awaited return to the latter half of a Grand Slam event, six years and 34 days having elapsed between her first and second Grand Slam semifinal appearances—a figure that is the fourth-longest in the Open Era. Only Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Natasha Zvereva, and Lori McNeil had waited longer. Interesting, though, is Belinda Bencic—who might still play Anisimova in the final—ranking just behind with a gap of more than five years between appearances in major semifinals.
While Anisimova waits for the result of Wednesday's second semifinal, she is only a victory away from an ideal Wimbledon championship—a title that would complete one of the sport's greatest comeback tales.
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