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Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On day 11, a doubles great won yet again as Amanda Anisimova and Iga Świątek booked their places in the women’s singles final.
Kateřina Siniaková strikes again
Kateřina Siniaková was a world No. 1, a 10-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist before she stepped onto Centre Court at Wimbledon today. Undisputedly the best doubles player in the world, Siniaková was still in the women’s event with American Taylor Townsend, with whom she won last year’s title in a partnership formed in the DMs.
But this time, she tried to do something she had never done before, which is rare for the Czech on a doubles court. Siniaková, 29, paired up with 31-year-old Sem Verbeek, No. 29 in the men’s doubles rankings, in a bid to win the mixed title in London.
It’s Siniaková. Of course they won, beating Joe Salisbury of Great Britain and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 7-6(3), 7-6(3). While Siniaková won seven of her 10 women’s doubles titles with compatriot Barbora Krejčíková, she has two with Townsend and one with Coco Gauff, and now this one in mixed with Verbeek.
Partnering her at a major is a surefire route to doubles success, and no wonder, given her finishing as year-end No. 1 in the discipline four times in her career.
James Hansen
An American prodigy’s remarkable journey
Amanda Anisimova has arrived.
The former teen sensation, who spent several years in the tennis wilderness following the sudden death of her father and coach when she was 17, upset the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 under a broiling sun on Centre Court today to make her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon.
She is the first American finalist at Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2019.
For Anisimova, the win is the high-water mark in a remarkable journey over the past year. In June 2024, as she muddled through a comeback from nearly a year of battling injuries and burnout, Anisimova fell in the final round of Wimbledon qualifying.
During the next year, each time she achieved an encouraging result, her body would abandon her. She struggled with injuries to her back and hip that prevented her from practicing, training and competing as much as she liked.
In April, she hired a physiotherapist named Shadi Soleymani to take charge of her health and fitness, and she has been on the upswing ever since.
For Sabalenka, it was another tough upset loss at the hands of an American seizing an opportunity in the final stages of a Grand Slam.
Sabalenka has played three Grand Slams since becoming the world No. 1 for a second time last fall, having spent two months at the top of the sport in 2023. She has not won any of them.
Anisimova now has the chance to win her first against a player who has won five and never lost a major final.
Matt Futterman
A legacy-defining moment for a great champion
Iga Świątek moved into her first Wimbledon final with a 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Belinda Bencic.
Świątek won with the controlled, clinical aggression on both serve and return that has defined her tennis the past fortnight — and more worryingly for everybody else, that defined her complete domination of the sport in 2022.
Świątek’s serve has been on fire all week. She has taken returns with patience, rather than trying to win the point with her first shot, because she knows she can take control of it on her second and then win it on the third, or the fourth.
The win makes Świątek the only active women’s player to have reached a Grand Slam final on all three surfaces. She has five major titles. She has 125 weeks as world No. 1. She has the longest win-streak (37) of this century.
She is not the best player in the world right now — Sabalenka’s incredible consistency in the late stages of Grand Slams, if not finals of late, is inarguable. But Świątek is now No. 2 in the live WTA ranking (which measures points won this season) in a year which, by all accounts, has been her worst of the past three.
Anisimova can trouble her Saturday with her scarcely believable power and the fearlessness that she showed on match point against Sabalenka.
But if Świątek starts moving the ball side to side with the power, depth and spin she has done all fortnight, the American will quickly understand what it means to be on the biggest stage in tennis for the first time.
Charlie Eccleshare
Shots of the day
It’s impossible to ignore Anisimova coming up clutch after three missed match points, just going after the ball with everything on the line:
But then Świątek goes and hits this vintage forehand that only she can:
Up next: the men’s semifinals
🎾 Taylor Fritz (5) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2)
8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+
Ahead of his semifinal (and before he knew his opponent), Fritz said the tennis he played in the quarterfinals would be too much for any player. Late-in-a-Grand-Slam Alcaraz will likely have a lot to say about that, and Fritz will have to execute his first serve and forehand flawlessly to have a shot.
Follow Fritz vs. Alcaraz on ESPN/ESPN+
🎾 Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Novak Djokovic (6)
One of the most compelling head-to-heads in men’s tennis is back for a second major in a row. Djokovic’s reinvention into a serve-and-hit-ball player is one of the most remarkable in tennis, but Sinner plays that style better than anyone. How is the Italian’s elbow, and how is Djokovic’s leg, after their falls this week?
Wimbledon men’s draw 2025Wimbledon women’s draw 2025
Tell us what you noticed on the 11th day…
(Top photo of Kateřina Siniaková and Sem Verbeek: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)