{"id":198761,"date":"2025-09-04T05:37:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T05:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/198761\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T05:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T05:37:10","slug":"amanda-anisimova-beats-iga-swiatek-at-u-s-open-in-wimbledon-final-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/198761\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Anisimova beats Iga \u015awi\u0105tek at U.S. Open in Wimbledon final rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. \u2014 Fifty-three days later, Amanda Anisimova<\/a> found redemption on Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n

After suffering the first 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon final<\/a> defeat since 1911 in July, Anisimova beat her tormentor on the grass, Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a>, to reach the U.S. Open<\/a> semifinals. In a monumental turnaround from the ultimate tennis humiliation on the biggest stage of all, Anisimova rebounded with a 6-4, 6-3 victory Wednesday.<\/p>\n

From the moment Anisimova lost the Wimbledon final, she has been publicly vulnerable in processing it. Her emotional on-court speech<\/a> immediately afterward, in which she wept as she paid tribute to the sacrifices her mother made for her career, won plenty of new fans. After leaving London, she went to New York, spent some time with her nephews, then hit the beach before getting back to work.<\/p>\n

Her results coming into the U.S. Open were mediocre, but she has been locked in here. Anisimova has dropped one set en route to the semifinals, and against \u015awi\u0105tek, she looked determined to quickly put the Wimbledon final behind her.<\/p>\n

But the journey to the moment of jubilation at her victory on Wednesday began pretty much as soon as the Wimbledon final was over. First there was the cathartic on-court interview, and then a phone call with a friend shortly after the match had finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of just laughed it off,\u201d Anisimova said of the call in a news conference. \u201cI was, like, \u2018Yeah, this is insane.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I feel like I was really able to bounce back from it really quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anisimova felt like she was over the final a few weeks ago, and had largely stopped thinking about it. But the night before facing \u015awi\u0105tek again, she confronted the nightmare head on. \u201cNobody told me to, but I watched them back, as painful as it was, just to see, what I can avoid or what went wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen after, I had to watch some good highlights to remove that from my brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was important for me to kind of see what happened last night going into today\u2019s match, but back then it was just kind of, like, move on. It\u2019s just kind of a freak thing that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her main takeaway from watching the final back? \u201cThat I was slow as hell,\u201d Anisimova said, laughing.<\/p>\n

Come Wednesday, as she went through her match preparations in the gym, the TV screens on both sides of her were showing a rerun of the Wimbledon final. A scene that sounded like tennis meets \u201cA Clockwork Orange.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the match was finally underway, after a long wait because of a lengthy men\u2019s match before it, Anisimova was broken in the opening game having had a game point. Memories of Centre Court immediately bubbled up for everyone watching. This time, she broke straight back, to win her first game against \u015awi\u0105tek, the No. 2 seed and one of the title favorites, at the 14th attempt. The roar that met Anisimova punching away a forehand to get the break was as if she\u2019d won the match. Relief swelled through the stadium, and Anisimova could concentrate on simply winning a tennis match.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like with each match that I\u2019ve played, I tell myself to not go into the match with fear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when I started the tournament, I was kind of going into the matches with a little bit of fear and maybe holding back a bit. As I\u2019ve been progressing and playing more and more, I told myself, \u2018you can\u2019t go into the match with any fear,\u2019 especially if I\u2019m playing against top players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not a negotiable for me, because if I want to win the match, I\u2019m going to have to play really brave and strong tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anisimova generally served well in the opening set, but \u015awi\u0105tek was left rueing two missed break points at 2-2, when she completely miscued a forehand off a loopy defensive shot from Anisimova that hung in the New York afternoon, and then netted a regulation forehand. From there, Anisimova started to get on top.<\/p>\n

She was just about hanging in during the forehand-to-forehand exchanges, and was then able to unleash with her world-class backhand. \u015awi\u0105tek saved a break point down 4-3 with some spectacular depth on the forehand side, but Anisimova broke two games later to take the set. She hit 13 winners compared to just six unforced errors in what was an extremely clean set. Anisimova was having particular joy going after the \u015awi\u0105tek second serve, winning 12\/17 of such points, and her attacking shots were skimming the lines and the net tape. Most impressive was her defense, which stopped \u015awi\u0105tek from moving her laterally and exposing her strokes on the run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t win today\u2019s match playing like that, serving like that, and with Amanda being so aggressive on the returns,\u201d \u015awi\u0105tek said in a news conference afterwards. \u201cSo I kind of get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Iga \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s serve did not offer enough protection against Amanda Anisimova\u2019s offensive. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u015awi\u0105tek broke immediately at the start of the second set, but having only made 53 percent of her serves in the first set, knew she\u2019d come under pressure in her own service games. Anisimova duly broke back for 2-2, and was striding around the court with purpose, looking like she believed this was going to be her day. The crowd were getting increasingly into it, swept up by the comeback story of a player last seen by the wider world in tears on Centre Court.<\/p>\n

Anisimova sensed that she needed to ride the wave of momentum. An aggressive forehand return earned her a break point, and when \u015awi\u0105tek double-faulted, she had the chance to serve out the match. If Anisimova was feeling nervous, on the verge of beating a six-time Grand Slam champion, she didn\u2019t show it. A fearless second serve took her up 30-0, and then she got to 40-0, with three match points.<\/p>\n

Maybe she then finally remembered where she was, double-faulting on her second match point after sending a backhand long on the first. But then it was all over, an extremely fortunate dead net cord<\/a> taking the ball trickling over the net, just as it had done to take her to 4-3 in the second set.<\/p>\n

Ashe rose as one, partly in delight, partly in disbelief, for its new tennis folk hero.<\/p>\n

Anisimova, who took an eight-month break from tennis a couple of years ago, to manage her wellbeing, said she was able to complete this remarkable turnaround by maintaining a sense of perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, to me it was just tennis,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, I\u2019m living out my dreams, and I\u2019m in a really good place in my life. I\u2019m happy every single day, which I really wasn\u2019t a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going through a lot, and every single day was kind of a s\u2014y day for me. Looking back at that, it\u2019s not the most important thing to me. It\u2019s what happened that day, and really it\u2019s just a tennis match at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anisimova\u2019s heartbreak at Wimbledon had touched so many people because of how relatable it was. Some will always remember her chiefly for that, but she is determined to not let it define her tennis career.<\/p>\n

And seven-and-a-half weeks later, she has offered the best possible riposte, with a U.S. Open semifinal against Naomi Osaka awaiting her and her faithful Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is definitely the most meaningful victory I\u2019ve had in my life,\u201d Anisimova said.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Robert Prange \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. \u2014 Fifty-three days later, Amanda Anisimova found redemption on Arthur Ashe Stadium. After suffering the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":198762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,1464,29618,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-198761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-top-sports-news","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115144415352762362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}