Amanda Anisimova saved four set points in a gritty second set to outlast Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at Wimbledon and make her second Grand Slam semifinal.
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WIMBLEDON — Six years ago, before Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva crashed into our collective consciousness, Amanda Anisimova was a teenage phenomenon. At the age of 17, she stunned Aryna Sabalenka and Simona Halep on the way to the semifinals at 2019 Roland Garros.
Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draws
It happened again three years later when she reached the quarterfinals here at the All England Club. But later that summer the pressures of professional tennis began to overwhelm the developing player. Over the next nine months, she managed only four victories, failing to win back-to-back matches in 10 consecutive tournaments.
Anisimova stepped away from the sport for seven months to heal and rebuild her mental health. When she returned to begin the 2024 season, her ranking was No. 442.
In retrospect, that extended break turned out to be a terrific decision. Eighteen months later, Anisimova — still only 23 and destined to enter the Top 10 next week — is playing the best tennis of her young life.
On a sunny late Tuesday afternoon on No. 1 Court, No. 13 seed Anisimova advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals with a 6-1, 7-6 (9) victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. That matches her career-best major berth of six years ago and represents her furthest advancement here.
She’ll have a chance to make some personal history on Thursday when she meets Sabalenka, the World No. 1. Earlier, Sabalenka was a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 comeback winner over Laura Siegemund. Anisimova has won five of her eight previous matches against Sabalenka.
Anisimova established herself in only three minutes at the beginning of Tuesday’s quarterfinal, breaking Pavlyuchenkova’s serve with a rocket of a forehand. That trend held up with Anisimova winning six of seven games in less than a half hour. She has now won 28 consecutive matches this year when she’s won the first set.
The 34-year-old Pavlyuchenkova had serving issues throughout the first set, hitting three double faults and going 0-for-6 behind her second serve.
In the second set, Anisimova broke Pavlyuchenkova in the sixth game to lead 4-2. But serving for the match at 5-3, the American was broken for the first time when Pavlyuchenkova converted her third break point.
Pavlyuchenkova saved two match points to level the match at 5-5, then came back from 0-30 down at 6-5 to force the tiebreak. The breaker was a barnburner, with Anisimova saving four set points before she converted her second match point of the tiebreak (and fourth overall) with a serve Pavlyuchenkova could not return.
Anisimova finished with 26 winners, 17 more than Pavlyuchenkova. She’s now won all four of her matches against Pavlyuchenkova and is 11-2 on grass for the season, another career best.
More to come…
