Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova traded power for more than two hours Friday night before the world No. 1 pulled through.<\/p>\n
WTA Finals: Scores<\/a> | Draws<\/a> | Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n Sabalenka prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a hard-hitting WTA Finals semifinal to reach her second career title match at the year-end championships, where she will face Elena Rybakina.<\/p>\n From the opening game it was clear neither player would give an inch. Anisimova matched Sabalenka\u2019s pace and aggression, but the top seed steadied late to close out the deciding set after 2 hours and 21 minutes on court.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I wouldn\u2019t care if I would\u2019ve lost this match, because I think we played an incredible match and both of us deserve this place in the finals,\u201d Sabalenka said after the match. \u201cThat was an incredible fight and I\u2019m super happy to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n The grind was evident from the start. Consider the numbers from just the first two games:<\/p>\n 30 points played It was part of a first set that lasted exactly one hour and featured 94 points, culminating in Sabalenka pulling it out with her second break of serve.<\/p>\n Anisimova\u2019s trouble came from failing to convert break points (0-for-5 compared with Sabalenka\u2019s 2-for-8) and piling up 24 unforced errors. She cut that number in half in the second set while converting all three of her break points to force a decider.<\/p>\n Having won 13 consecutive three-setters, Anisimova seemed poised to continue the streak. But the US Open champion showed her mettle, striking first with a backhand winner down the line to break for a 4-3 lead.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the first point at three-all, there was a physically tough point — and I felt, ‘OK, she\u2019s out of breath and I need to keep pushing her, keep making her work for every point,\u2019\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI felt like in that game it was the key; this mentality was the key.<\/p>\n \u201cI was just trying to make her play the extra ball and it really worked and I was able to break. And that game gave me so much energy, power and confidence going into my serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Anisimova had one last chance when a Sabalenka double fault offered a break point, but the Belarusian\u2019s first serve carried her out of trouble and out to a 5-3 lead. Minutes later, she closed out the victory and set up a final with Rybakina, who defeated Jessica Pegula earlier in the day.<\/p>\n After the match, Sabalenka took a moment to praise her opponent\u2019s breakout season.<\/p>\n \u201cI told Amanda she should be proud of her season,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cShe played incredible tennis the whole season and it\u2019s just the beginning. I know right now she\u2019s probably disappointed, but many more things are coming her way for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Anisimova was less prepared to dissect her performance, and the season that preceded it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I played good tennis at points in the match,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd at some points there was a drop. It was kind of like a roller coaster. There are things I can learn from this match but it\u2019s too soon to process it.\u201d<\/p>\n For Sabalenka, the win continues a season of milestones:<\/p>\n Clinched the Year-End No. 1 ranking Sabalenka will face Rybakina for the 14th time, becoming her most-played opponent. She leads the head-to-head 8-5, winning their most recent meeting in Wuhan earlier this season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be another powerful game,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI feel like today was great preparation for Elena. I\u2019m looking forward to leaving everything I have in the last match of the season and fighting for this beautiful trophy.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll definitely go out there tomorrow and fight for every point.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova traded power for more than two hours Friday night before the world No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":{"0":"post-268830","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\/268830","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=268830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n18 minutes elapsed
\n14 combined unforced errors
\n9 deuce points
\n6 break points<\/p>\n
\nReached nine finals, most on the WTA Tour in 2025
\nAdvanced to 12 semifinals, also a WTA Tour high
\nWon 63 matches, surpassing Iga Swiatek for most on the WTA Tour this season
\nBecame the first player since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to reach three Grand Slam finals and the WTA Finals in one season<\/p>\n