Just two months after reaching her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, Amanda Anisimova proved it was no fluke.<\/p>\n
The American rallied from a set down to defeat four-time major champion Naomi Osaka 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3, in just under three hours to reach her second Grand Slam final of the season.<\/p>\n
US Open: Draws<\/a> | Scores<\/a> | Order of Play<\/a><\/p>\n With the win, Anisimova became the first player to beat Osaka in a major semifinal.<\/p>\n \u201cNaomi is playing amazing tennis,\u201d Anisimova said after the match. \u201cShe\u2019s back where she belongs, and I told her I\u2019m so proud of her. After having a baby, to be playing at this level — it\u2019s insane. She was really giving me a run for the final, and I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d make it past the finish line.<\/p>\n \u201cThis tournament means so much to me, and I think that was really getting to me. In the end, I was just trying to fight my way through and enjoy the moment. We were both playing some amazing tennis, and sometimes I was like, \u2018How are we making these shots?\u2019 But we were — and we just kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n Anisimova will face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday\u2019s final — a rematch of their Wimbledon semifinal, where the 24-year-old pulled off a stunning upset earlier this summer.<\/p>\n She\u2019ll be the third different American woman to face Sabalenka in a Grand Slam final this season, following Madison Keys at the Australian Open and Coco Gauff at the French Open.<\/p>\n With Anisimova reaching the final at both Wimbledon and the US Open, it marks the first time since 2002 that at least one American woman has appeared in all four major finals in a single calendar year.<\/p>\n Although the semifinal between Anisimova and Osaka didn\u2019t conclude until early Friday morning, it began Thursday night under a closed roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The crowd was evenly split, with half cheering for the American on home soil and the other half backing the ever-popular Osaka.<\/p>\n Osaka rewarded her supporters immediately, breaking Anisimova in the opening game and setting the stage for a back-and-forth battle.<\/p>\n After Osaka jumped out to a 2-0 lead, Anisimova won nine of the next 10 points, following a hold with a break to level the set at 2-2. Osaka responded with another break in the next game, but Anisimova answered with a rocket forehand winner to level it at 5-all.<\/p>\n In the tiebreak, Osaka reeled off six straight points to take a 6-1 lead and closed it out 7-4.<\/p>\n The second set followed a similar pattern. Anisimova broke to open; Osaka broke back. Anisimova broke for a 3-2 lead, Osaka broke back. Anisimova broke again — and Osaka broke back once more.<\/p>\n But in the second-set tiebreak, Anisimova seized control and never looked back, winning the first four points, and five of the first six, en route to leveling the match.<\/p>\n She broke for a 3-1 lead in the final set — her sixth break of the match — and served it out from there. After letting two match points slip away, Anisimova saved two break points while serving for the match before sealing the victory.<\/p>\n Osaka fell to 47-3 in Grand Slam matches on hard courts after winning the first set. Two of those losses have come against Anisimova, who finished the match with an even 50 winners.<\/p>\n Now, Anisimova turns her focus to another multi-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n She holds a 6-3 record against Sabalenka at the WTA level, including wins in their most recent meeting overall (Wimbledon semifinal) and on hard courts (Toronto 2024).<\/p>\n A seventh win against Sabalenka would mean a maiden Grand Slam title for Anisimova.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d Anisimova said. \u201cThis has been a dream of mine forever — to be in the US Open final. Obviously, the hope is to be the champion\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n She paused to take in the moment before looking ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I mean, I\u2019m in the final now, and I\u2019m going to try to get ready. I\u2019m just excited — it\u2019s really special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just two months after reaching her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, Amanda Anisimova proved it was no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":{"0":"post-121567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}