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WIMBLEDON, England — One year ago, Amanda Anisimova was at home in Miami, spending time with friends and trying to pay as little attention to her phone as possible.
And she certainly wasn’t following the results at Wimbledon.
She had lost in the final round of qualifying for the major, a defeat she called “heartbreaking,” and left Europe without recording a single win on grass. She wasn’t interested in watching the tournament and even chose to take a few days completely away from the practice court.
Anisimova had recently returned from an eight-month mental health break from the sport and was struggling to rediscover her place in the tennis ecosystem. People told her it would be hard for her to return to the top of the game — she had reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2022 — and to the point, they had been right.
But that was then.
On Thursday, playing in the stifling afternoon heat on Centre Court against No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 13 seed Anisimova took the latest unforeseen step in a career full of them, as she pulled off the staggering upset, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to advance to her first major final. The crowd, which seemed to be holding their collective breath throughout the deciding set, showered her with a rousing ovation after the two-hour, 37-minute match was finally over.
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Even Anisimova couldn’t help but express her disbelief.
“To be honest, if you told me I would be in the final at Wimbledon, I would not believe you,” Anisimova, 23, said on the court moments after the match. “At least not this soon, because I mean, it’s been a year turnaround since coming back and to be in this spot, I mean, it’s not easy. And so many people dream of competing on this incredible court. It’s been such a privilege to compete here, and to be in the final is just indescribable.”
Now, playing against five-time major champion Iga Swiatek, Anisimova will have a chance to win the first Grand Slam title of her career on Saturday.
Few would have been surprised by Anisimova’s results after watching her win the US Open junior title in 2017, or after she reached her first major semifinal as a 17-year-old at the 2019 French Open. Following her breakthrough in Paris, she found herself ranked just outside the top 20. There were comparisons to Maria Sharapova, and massive endorsement deals soon followed.
But just months after her run at Roland Garros, her father, who was also her longtime coach, died unexpectedly. She withdrew from the US Open. Not long after, the pandemic paused the sport for several months. Then there was a positive COVID-19 test that sidelined her from the Australian Open in 2021.
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She had a resurgent spring in 2022, with a fourth-round appearance at the French Open and a quarterfinal run at Wimbledon, but then she broke her toe over the summer. When she returned in 2023, she won just two main draw matches in seven tournaments to open the year.
By the time she announced she would be stepping away — saying that tennis had become “unbearable” — in May of 2023, it had been months since she had recorded a victory, and she was ranked No. 46 in the world.
During her time away, she did all the things she had always wanted to do but couldn’t as she traveled the world for tournaments. She spent time with friends and family in Miami, further developed her passion for painting, volunteered at a dog shelter and attended college classes.
“[It was] a necessary thing to kind of reset with where I was at in my life and career-wise,” Anisimova said on Tuesday. “It was just something that I needed to do kind of for myself.”
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By July 2023, she started working with performance coach Ricard Cesari two days a week. They gradually increased their intensity and time together, with Anisimova becoming more and more intent on making her return.
“She said she was going to play in Australia and was going to be in the best shape possible,” Cesari told ESPN last year. “She was super motivated and knew what she wanted.”
Anisimova did just that.
Ranked No. 442 at the start of the tournament, Anisimova played at the 2024 Australian Open on a protected ranking. Despite the rust, she reached the fourth round and recorded stunning wins over Liudmila Samsonova, the No. 13 seed, and Paula Badosa. It was a better comeback than she even could have predicted.
But, as Anisimova knew all too well, progress doesn’t always go in a straight line. She didn’t play again until April. When she returned for the clay season, she won just two matches in four events. Because of how sparingly she had played, her ranking remained outside of the threshold to automatically qualify for Wimbledon. But Anisimova then turned her sights to the hard courts.
Her hard work paid off. Coming through qualifying, she reached the quarterfinals at the Citi Open in early August and then reached the then-biggest final of her career at the 1000-level Canadian Open. She lost in the first round of the 2024 US Open but was back in the top 40 by year’s end.
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In February, she won the most substantial title of her career at the 1000-level Qatar Open. She had a fourth-round showing at the 2025 French Open and then reached the first final on grass of her career at Queen’s Club last month.
But nothing has compared to what she’s done at Wimbledon you.
Anisimova made a statement in her first-round match against Yulia Putintseva with a 6-0, 6-0 score in just 44 minutes. Since then, she’s had to fight, needing deciding sets in her third- and fourth-round matches and having to clinch the win in a tough tiebreak in the quarterfinals against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-1, 7-6 (9).
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“She was just playing too good today,” Pavlyuchenkova said after the match.
Despite Anisimova’s convincing run to Thursday’s semifinals, Sabalenka — a three-time major champion who was looking to reach her fourth consecutive Slam final — was the clear favorite and had the best odds of anyone remaining to win the tournament. While Anisimova had a 5-3 career head-to-head record over Sabalenka entering the match and is one of the few players who can match Sabalenka’s power, Sabalenka had won their last meeting at the French Open in June, 7-5, 6-3 and simply looked to be on another level.
But in the near-record heat, and with little breeze to be found, Anisimova found a way to battle past her opponent and the conditions.
Despite two breaks of play due to medical emergencies of those in the stands in the first set, it was Anisimova who earned the first break of the contest at the end of the opening set, when Sabalenka double-faulted and Anisimova took the lead. Sabalenka wouldn’t go away quietly however — literally and figuratively — and she raised her level in the second set. Sabalenka then broke Anisimova in the first game of the deciding set and it looked as if the inevitable would happen and Sabalenka would pull away.
“If you had told me I would be in the final at Wimbledon, I would not believe you. At least not this soon.”
American Amanda Anisimova after making her first major final ❤️ pic.twitter.com/gUfw94hO8w
— ESPN (@espn) July 10, 2025
But then Anisimova broke back. And after that, the American largely took control. While there were nerves, some dramatic rallies and four match points, Anisimova ultimately got it done as she became the first American to advance to the Wimbledon final since Serena Williams in 2019.
“I have to say that I did my best,” Sabalenka said after the match. “I gave everything I had at the moment … I have to say that she was more brave today. Maybe when I was just, like, trying to stay in the point, she was, like, going for all — she was playing more aggressive.”
By the time the crowd sat in their seats again, a dejected Sabalenka was already off the court and on her way to the locker room. Meanwhile, Anisimova stood on the court and appeared to soak it all in as she looked toward her family and friends, including her two young nephews, in her box.
“This doesn’t feel real right now, honestly,” Anisimova then said to the crowd. “Aryna’s such a tough competitor and I was absolutely dying out there. And yeah, I don’t know how I pulled it out. I mean, she’s such an incredible competitor and she’s an inspiration to me and I’m sure so many other people. We’ve had so many tough battles, and to come out on top today and be in the final of Wimbledon is just so incredibly special.”
Anisimova, who will crack the top 10 for the first time next week, is now the fourth straight American woman to reach a Slam final, joining Jessica Pegula at the US Open, Madison Keys at the Australian Open and Coco Gauff at the French Open. She now hopes to do what Keys and Gauff were able to do and continue the season-sweep for the Americans.
Amanda Anisimova defeated No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the Wimbledon semifinal on Thursday. Susan Mullane-Imagn Images
Swiatek, a five-time major champion, has had her long-awaited breakthrough on grass during the fortnight. She had previously never advanced past the quarterfinals at the tournament but has been dominant this year. She’s dropped just one set en route to the final and routed Belinda Bencic, 6-2, 6-0 in Thursday’s other semifinal.
Remarkably, it will be the first tour-level meeting for Anisimova and Swiatek. They’ve played against one another only once before in the 2016 Junior Fed Cup final, in which Swiatek defeated Anisimova, 6-4, 6-2 to help Poland take the title.
Anisimova’s coaches told her at the time that Swiatek was “going to be a big deal one day,” but now they both have a chance to make history and win their first Wimbledon title. Anisimova knows it will be a challenge against an “unbelievable player” but she’s looking forward to the “battle.”
“I’m just going to go out and enjoy every moment and try to not think about what’s on the line there,” Anisimova said.
And no matter what, she hopes what she’s accomplished since taking her break will prove to everyone — including those who doubted her — that it can be done.
“I think it goes to show that it is possible,” Anisimova told reporters. “I think that’s a really special message that I think I’ve been able to show because when I took my break, a lot of people told me that you would never make it to the top again if you take so much time away from the game. That was a little hard to digest because I did want to come back and still achieve a lot and win a Grand Slam one day.
“Just me being able to prove that you can get back to the top if you prioritize yourself. So that’s been incredibly special to me. Yeah, it means a lot.”
