No. 13 seed Amanda Anisimova, the only American remaining in the women’s draw, will be making her first Wimbledon semifinal appearance after defeating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 7-6 (9) on Tuesday.
Anisimova collapsed flat on her face in sheer relief after a hard-fought win that saw her opponent save two match points in the 10th game, including on a gutsy drop shot winner that caught Anisimova completely by surprise.
In the tiebreak, Anisimova had to save five set points before finally converting on her fourth match point.
At 23, Anisimova is the youngest American Wimbledon semifinalist since Serena Williams was 22 in 2004. She advances to her second major semifinal, the other coming at the 2019 French Open, where she pushed eventual champion Ashleigh Barty before losing in three sets.
Anisimova announced in May 2023 she was taking a mental health break, and didn’t touch a racket for four months before returning at the Auckland tournament in January 2024. She played the 2024 Australian Open with a protected ranking while ranked well outside the top 400.
A year ago at Wimbledon, she was No. 189 in the world and lost in the final round of qualifying.
But things started to turn around for her after making the final at the WTA 1000 event in Toronto, where she lost to Jessica Pegula. Then in February of this year, Anisimova won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha and cracked the WTA’s Top 20 for the first time in her career.
Now, she’s tracking closer to a Top 10 debut following this year’s Wimbledon.
“It’s been an extraordinary year for me, so many highs,” Anisimova said in her on-court interview. “I’ve just been enjoying every step of the way … I keep reminding myself to enjoy the moment; it’s not often you get to play on such a special court in front of so many special people.”
Anisimova has won 11 of her last 13 matches since she started her grass-court campaign, including reaching her first WTA grass-court final at Queen’s Club before losing to Tatjana Maria.
She faces No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals Thursday. Anisimova holds a 5-3 edge in their head-to-head meetings, though Sabalenka won their most recent encounter in the French Open round of 16 in straight sets.
ESPN Research and Reuters contributed to this report.
