world No. 1 and reigning U.S. Open champion, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a>, is now the only thing standing in the way of Anisimova and her first Grand Slam trophy.<\/p>\nIn her five previous appearances in Flushing, the young American had never advanced beyond the third round.<\/p>\n
On the heels of an incredibly low moment in a career that\u2019s simply had too many, Anisimova has unearthed some stellar tennis.<\/p>\n
Amanda Anisimova reacts after winning her semifinal match at the U.S. Open. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Naomi Osaka hits a shot during her semifinal match at the U.S. Open. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
It seemingly peaked a few days ago in Anisimova\u2019s straight-sets triumph over world No. 2 Iga Swiatek on Wednesday, who was on the other side of the net in her Wimbledon loss on July 12.<\/p>\n
But the way Anisimova recovered from dropping the first set tiebreak on Thursday night was in a league of its own.<\/p>\n
So how did she do it?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, Naomi is playing amazing tennis,\u201d said Anisimova, who blasted 50 winners in the victory. \u201cShe\u2019s back where she belongs. I told her that I\u2019m so proud of her after having a baby and playing at this level. It\u2019s insane. She was really giving me a run for the final. I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d make it past the finish line. I tried to dig deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the win, Anisimova remains undefeated against Osaka in their three meetings. <\/p>\n
The two hadn\u2019t squared off since 2022 though, which was evident in Osaka\u2019s strong start.<\/p>\n
Amanda Anisimova of reacts against Naomi Osaka of Japan during night 12 of the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Wednesday September 4, 2025. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Up until Thursday, every single time Osaka had reached the quarterfinals of a major, she went on to win the title. <\/p>\n
Anisimova put that streak to bed as Thursday night became Friday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t feel sad,\u201d Osaka said after the match. \u201cIt\u2019s really weird. Well, it\u2019s not weird, because I just feel like I\u00a0did the best that I could. Honestly, it\u2019s kind of inspiring for\u00a0me, because it makes me just want to train and try to get\u00a0better, and hopefully, yeah, just give it my very best shot\u00a0again and see what happens.\u00a0But I think I can\u2019t be mad or upset at myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Committing 23 unforced turnovers to Osaka\u2019s 10, Anisimova was a bit all over the place in the first set.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Naomi Osaka (R) hugs USA\u2019s Amanda Anisimova after losing their women\u2019s singles semifinal tennis match on day twelve of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, on September 4, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The No. 8 seed rallied from down 4-2 and 5-3 to force a tiebreaker. <\/p>\n
Osaka quickly built a 6-1 lead, but Anisimova cut it to 6-4 before the Japanese-born player took the first set.<\/p>\n
After getting broken in the ninth game of the second set to fall behind 5-4, Osaka threw her racket and put a towel over her head during the changeover as her frustrations bubbled.<\/p>\n
Amanda Anisimova hits a shot during her U.S. Open match Sept. 4. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
A double-fault from Anisimova ensured the set was tied at five-all, but Osaka rallied from down 40-15 in the 11th game to hold. <\/p>\n
In the second tiebreak, Anisimova dominated early to snag a quick 5-1 lead before forcing the deciding set.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amanda Anisimova is a Grand Slam finalist once again. Less than two months removed from a double bagel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3842,18323,99,428,14687],"class_list":{"0":"post-134263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-amanda-anisimova","9":"tag-naomi-osaka","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-us-open-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}